Cleanery refill sachets are made of a waterproof film that can be recycled in soft plastics recycling schemes. They are 99% less waste and emissions than the traditional bottled equivalent of product.

NEW ZEALAND

You can drop our sachets into any soft plastics recycling point around New Zealand. If this is not available to you, please email us on hello@cleanery.co.nz and we will send you a pre-paid envelope to return your sachet collection to us and we will see it safely recycled.

New Zealand Soft Plastics Drop Off Locator

AUSTRALIA

With the sad collapse of REDCycle in 2022, unfortunately there is currently no way to dispose of soft plastics in Australia, except in limited supermarkets that are slowly reintroducing trial versions of the scheme. You can dispose of the Cleanery sachet in the general waste bin. Each sachet weighs around a gram, so is 99% less waste and emissions than the alternative traditional single use bottle of product - not perfect, but so much better than the status quo. We are currently working hard on alternative safe packaging that has an even lighter footprint than our current sachet.

USA

Please dispose of refill sachets in soft plastics drop off points where they are available. Many grocery stores will have these.

Soft plastics are not kerbside recyclable, so if you do not have a drop off point available to you please dispose of them with your general waste.

We are always happy to answer questions around our packaging and products so please reach out to the team on hello@cleaneryonline.com and let’s talk.

Spotlight on the Cleanery sachet

One of the most frequent questions we are asked at Cleanery is “what is your refill packaging made of?”

Reducing Impact

Let’s start with the fact that our refill sachets weigh around 1 gram and they are 99% less single use plastic than the average “traditional” bottle of cleaning product. To put it another way, you’d need to use up to 100 of our refill sachets to equate to the (often hard to recycle) material in just one “traditional” bottle of cleaner.

By using our refill sachet you’ve already knocked 99% per cent of waste on the head. That’s a huge saving of resource, and that’s on top of the benefits of a sachet of powder versus a heavy bottle filled mostly with water being shipped around the world.

On to the refill sachet…

What is the Cleanery refill sachet made of?

Our refill sachet is made of lightweight plastic that is recyclable in the soft plastics recycling schemes, where they exist. We are a part of the Soft Plastics Recycling Scheme in New Zealand.

There is no current soft plastics recycling scheme in Australia.

Find Drop Off Point Here

How did you decide what to make the refill sachets from?

What to use for our refill sachets was not a decision that was made quickly or lightly and there’s a lot more to it than meets the eye. Our scientists worked closely with some of New Zealand’s leading sustainable packaging experts to establish what option would have the lowest environmental impact while also being highly functional.

First and foremost, packaging needs to protect its contents and ensure it gets to customers in great condition. There’s nothing more wasteful than having to bin an entire product because the packaging doesn’t do its job. This means it needs to be durable and offer a good moisture barrier. Also, while our formulations are plant and mineral based, and super safe you and the environment, it is still an ultra-effective cleaning product in concentrated form, and thus requires packaging that is child resistant. Finally, it has be practical and ensure that mixing your products is super easy and convenient.

Why did you choose plastic packaging?

Initially, one of our decisions was whether to go for compostable or recyclable packaging.

It is a common misconception that compostable packaging is the best or most sustainable option, but the reality is that it is often not. The Ministry of Environment’s recent findings[1] around compostable packaging provide an extensive overview of the many challenges around compostable packaging. These include:

  • The majority do not have home compost systems or access to compost systems (either home or commercial). This means compostable materials most often end up in landfill.
  • Compostable packaging is often incorrectly placed into recycling bins by consumers – as they cannot be recycled, they often contaminate recycling collections leading to it all going to landfill rather than being recycled. Massive own goal.
  • Limited infrastructure to process compostable materials. Commercial composting facilities – where they are even available – don’t want to be dealing with packaging. They are set up for food scraps and organic waste and because they can’t sort compostable from normal packaging it all goes to landfill.
  • And finally, even if the packaging finds its way into a compost bin or commercial composter, it has no nutritional value and adds nothing positive to compost or soil.

While there are some benefits to compostable packaging in the right and very specific setting, it was clear that this was not a suitable route for cleaning products.

Having ruled out compostable packaging, we opted to select plastic that had the opportunity to be repurposed and reused again through Soft Plastic Recycling Schemes.

 

[1] Ministry for the Environment. 2022. Compostable products: Ministry for the Environment position statement. Wellington: Ministry for the Environment. https://environment.govt.nz/assets/publications/compostables-packaging-position-statement.pdf