Low waste, high performance - no compromise

When we set out to build the Cleanery brand and create our low waste cleaning and personal care products, we spent a lot of time researching and learning about the products already on the market and what did and did not work.

There was one obvious issue that became apparent, and its solution became the heart of the formulations we were developing...

Most low waste, green, eco or sustainable cleaners just didn't seem to clean that well. And on top of that, most also had a "green premium" on the price tag.

We knew Cleanery had to be different. There was no way the average consumer, our target audience, was ever going to convert to a low waste cleaner unless we solved those problems. At the end of the day, consumers want their products to work well, be affordable, accessible, simple and easy to use. If a lower-waste product makes cleaning harder, most people will eventually return to the product that works, even if that means extra packaging.

For low-waste cleaning to become the everyday choice that people will actually stick to, it has to perform every bit as well as the conventional alternative.

What is the best low-waste cleaner?

Put simply, we believe the best low-waste cleaner is one that delivers exceptional cleaning performance while also substantially reducing packaging.

The refill format alone does not make one cleaner better than another. Powder refills, tablets and liquid concentrates can all reduce waste, but their performance depends on the formulation inside.

A good low-waste cleaner should:

• Do the job it is supposed to do

• Replace a full bottle with much less packaging

• Use a long-lasting bottle that can be refilled repeatedly

• Be simple to mix and use

• Clearly explain its ingredients and environmental claims

• Represent good value per finished bottle

Cleanery is designed around all of these requirements. We really put our chemists and engineers to the test when we set out to formulate our range of low waste cleaners, hand soaps and dish products, and proved that a no-compromise eco cleaner could exist.

We chose a powder format because it allowed us to remove the water while developing different full-strength formulations for different cleaning jobs. Powder dissolves quickly, is easy to mix and makes one full bottle of powerful product when combined with water at home.

Learn more about why we chose powder instead of tablet, pod and liquid cleaning refills.

What should you compare when choosing a low-waste cleaner?

What to compare	Why it matters	The Cleanery approach
Cleaning performance	A refill is not useful if the finished product does not work	Full-strength formulas developed for specific jobs and tested for performance
Packaging per bottle	A small refill may not make much finished product	One lightweight refill makes one full bottle
Bottle reuse	The benefit grows each time the main bottle is reused	Cleanery bottles are designed to be kept and refilled
Ingredient transparency	Customers should know what they are using	Every Cleanery ingredient is listed
Cost per bottle	Low-waste products must be realistic for everyday households	Refills are an affordable alternative to buying another bottle

Do low-waste cleaners work as well as conventional cleaners?

Yes, they absolutely can. We've proven that. Removing water at the manufacturing stage does not automatically make the finished product weaker.

Once the correct amount of water is added, a well-formulated refill becomes a full-strength cleaning product. Its performance comes down to the ingredients, their concentration and how the formula has been developed and tested.

The manufacturing and chemistry challenge is that you cannot simply remove the water from an existing liquid cleaner and put what remains into a sachet. The entire product has to be formulated to work as a dry powder, remain stable during storage, dissolve when water is added and perform properly as a finished liquid.

Our kitchen cleaner still needs to cut through grease. Our bathroom cleaner needs to tackle soap scum and bathroom build-up. Our glass cleaner needs to remove marks without leaving streaks. Our dish liquid needs to handle greasy dishes and develop the thickness people expect when they squeeze it from the bottle.

Developing that range took years of chemistry, engineering and testing. We created our own Cleanery Powder Technology™ and built a purpose-designed manufacturing facility in Auckland to make it at scale.

The result is not a watered-down version of a conventional cleaner. It is a full-strength product with the water added at home.

How do you know whether a low-waste cleaner works?

Words such as “eco”, “green”, “natural” and “low waste” do not prove that a product cleans well. Neither does attractive packaging.

Look for evidence that the product has been developed and tested for its intended job. Customer reviews can be helpful, but brands should also be able to explain how they assess performance.

Cleanery formulations are developed for the specific job on the label, rather than using one generic formula for every type of surface. We have also tested our cleaners using recognised industry testing methods, including comparative tile testing based on the IKW method.

Learn more about how Cleanery products work and are tested.

If we are asking people to change a familiar household habit, we need to offer more than good intentions. We need to make products that work.

Performance is part of sustainability

A product that creates less packaging but sits unused in the cupboard is not a successful low-waste solution.

Neither is a cleaner that requires twice as much product, more scrubbing or a second cleaner to finish the job. If customers try a refill once and then return to conventional cleaners, its ability to reduce waste is limited.

The most effective sustainability solutions are the ones people can adopt without feeling that they are sacrificing something important. That is how a lower-waste format moves beyond a niche audience and becomes an everyday choice.

Are refillable cleaners better than recyclable bottles?

Refilling and recycling are not the same thing.

A recyclable bottle is still a new bottle that needs to be manufactured, filled and transported. If it's full of product, it's still a heavy bottle filled mostly with water that needs to be shipped and stored. If it is only going to be used once, that is a heap of materials and energy for such a short useful life. It must then be correctly collected, sorted and processed if it is to have any chance of being recycled.

In contrast, a refillable cleaning system keeps the main bottle in use and replaces only the concentrated product inside it. This prevents the need for another full bottle each time the product runs out.

Recycling still matters, but reducing the amount of packaging used in the first place can have a much greater effect.

As clean as it gets

We started Cleanery because we believed the cleaning aisle could and should be better. We wanted to be the change that sees the end of aisles and aisles of single-use bottles that come at the cost of the planet, your health and your wallet.

Better performance should not require another single-use plastic bottle. Reducing waste should not mean accepting a product that does half the job. And choosing a lower-impact option should not be difficult or prohibitively expensive.

Cleanery combines concentrated powder refills with reusable bottles and full-strength formulations made for the job.

Powder + water. Low waste and high performance.

You shouldn’t have to choose.