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ECOVER DEVELOPS PATENTED APPLICATION OF ECO-SURFACTANTS IN NEW & IMPROVED ECOLOGICAL CLEANING PRODUCTS [ 06-01-2010 ]

From the world’s best-known brand of ecological cleaning products for the entire home comes new Ecover Eco-Surfactants. Created using a special bioreactor that requires no chemical processing whatsoever, Ecover now delivers even more effective and even more ecological cleaning power with the application of new Eco-Surfactants in new Improved Formula Ecover All Purpose Cleaner available at retail nationwide Spring 2010. Improved Formula Ecover Glass & Surface Cleaner becomes available at retail Summer 2010, and NEW Ecover Power Cleaner and 32oz. Refill, and Glass & Surface Refill, will be available at retail Fall 2010.

Since Ecover’s founding in 1980, the company has worked tirelessly to develop smarter science for the effective cleaning of the entire home. Ecover’s research and development team is a regular contributor to scientific and professional trade journals worldwide making them a leader in the scientific community and a leader in the field of consumer products manufacturing.

“Smarter science is the cornerstone of our success,” says Kipling Wagner for Ecover’s US Marketing Division. “We’re continuously working to pioneer the most innovative and sustainable ingredients and manufacturing processes. Everything we do takes into consideration the full life cycle of our products from development in our ecological factories to use in the homes of our consumers and beyond.”

So what is an Eco-Surfactant? It all started with yeast. In the 1960’s scientists discovered a unique type of yeast in a bee’s nest that makes a type of surfactant (surfactants are wetting agents that lower the surface tension of a liquid, allowing easier spreading, and lower the interfacial tension between two liquids – in other words, surfactants are what make water wet) from a combination of glucose (sugar) and oil. Thanks to this yeast, a natural connection is made between the soluble sugar and the non-soluble oil. The result is an Eco-Surfactant.

Creating an ideal breeding ground for this special yeast on an industrial scale, however, presented the company with quite a challenge. Experimenting with temperature and ventilation on a large scale, Ecover quickly won European approval and received various subsidies from national and international organizations and universities to fund their research projects.

Eventually, this lead to the first successful Eco-Surfactant products to be launched at retail in 2010.

No other cleaning product can now claim to use the truly ecological surfactants that Ecover does. Ecover holds the patent on the use of Eco-Surfactants in cleaning products making them even more ecological and more effective in the world today. But their scientists won’t stop there. Their understanding of the potential of Eco-Surfactants is steadily growing as they further explore its solubility, foaming power and stability so that the Eco-Surfactants may be applied to many other Ecover products in the near future.

Legally, only surface-active substances in the product need to be biodegradable. Ecover tests the complete product and not just the surfactants that make up just a part of the total formula. Ecover’s tests include measuring aquatic toxicity and calculating critical dilution volumes, which is the amount of water needed to neutralize a functional dose of a product after is has been used. For example, each dose of Ecover Toilet Cleaner takes about 400 times less water to neutralize than its closest comparable competitor.

“Good just isn’t ‘good enough’ for Ecover. We’ve been traversing the road to more effective, cleaning products since 1980,” adds Wagner.

True innovators of sustainability, Ecover is continually working towards minimizing their impact on the environment and last year reduced their plastic consumption by 8.6% by manufacturing their own unique spray bottle nozzles, which lightened their load by 3gs per bottle.

For more about Ecover innovations visit www.ecover.com. For more information on Eco-Surfactants visit www.ecover-ecosurfactants.com/uk/en.htm.

Ecover Improved Formula All Purpose Cleaner available in 32oz. bottles will retail for an SRP of $5.75 beginning in Spring 2010; Improved Formula Glass & Surface Cleaner (16oz.) and Refill will retail for an SRP of $4.75 starting Summer 2010; and pricing and availability for new Ecover Power Cleaner (16 oz) is TBA. Locate retailers of Ecover products by visiting www.findecover.com.

ABOUT ECOVER
For THIRTY years, Ecover has been devoted to developing and producing effective and ecological washing and cleaning products made from plant and mineral based ingredients. Ecover's aim is to provide effective sustainable alternatives for washing and cleaning that can be used daily by people all around the world. Ecover's ecological principles extend far beyond the products they create.

Ecover's vision of sustainability takes ecological, economic and social aspects into account from the origins of the raw materials, to the complete biodegradation of the final products. Strict criteria are employed along the way as guidelines for all business operations. The products themselves are manufactured in Ecover's unique, world-famous ecological factory.

Ecover is a company that operates with sustainability at its very core. Ecover is constantly innovating and pushing boundaries to create new and more effective products that have minimum negative impact on the environment.

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