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WASTE IS ONLY WASTE IF WE WASTE IT.

We’re rethinking waste with our new, limited run of cleaners made using up to 97% rescued food waste (excl. water). 

Yep, really. 

Potato peels have been transformed into cleaning surfactants. Leftover alcohol, from alcohol-free beer has been turned into ethanol. Supermarket food waste has been transformed into limescale remover. And our fragrance partly comes from rescued fruit. 

LET’S TURN WASTE INTO A WANT

From overconsumption in supermarkets, to oversupply in restaurants, to that overripe avocado at the bottom of your fridge. Millions of tonnes of food go to waste in Europe each year*. 

What a waste. 

But we believe waste is only waste, if we waste it.​ With these new cleaners we want to show that waste can be an opportunity, not a problem, and challenge us all to ditch our throwaway culture. We know it’s just a start. But you have to start somewhere. 

*WWF WRAP 2020 

USED OUR LIMITED EDITION WASTE-BASED TOILET AND MULTI-SURFACE CLEANERS? TELL US WHAT YOU THINK

Ecover is proud to have worked with ChainCraft and the partners from the CBE JU funded Waste2Func Project, more specifically with biosurfactants supplier AmphiStar, biobased lactic acid supplier TripleW and with project coordinator Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant, to bring these industry-leading products to life.

WE’RE NOT STOPPING HERE

We’re on a mission to redefine what being ‘clean’ truly means.

It’s what we’ve been obsessing over for the best part of 40 years, and it’s what keeps us fearless and foolish. Today, tomorrow, always.

From creating the first phosphate-free washing powder, to building our ZERO waste certified factory, to launching a washing-up liquid made using 25% beer waste ingredients. And now our cleaners made using rescued food waste.

And there’s more where that came from.

We’re busy looking at the next generation of cleaning ingredients made from waste. And get this, not just from food waste. Mic drop

Our mission to redefine what being ‘clean’ truly means

Ecover's History
Take a trip down memory lane

Limited Edition Waste Washing up Liquid

Washing up with Waste
Made using Beer Waste

Let's Uninvent Waste

Experiments in Waste
One Experiment At A Time
FAQs
  • What are the ingredients + what do they do?
    • Potato peels turned into cleaning surfactants (the active ingredients that work hard to get things clean)
    • Supermarket food waste transformed into a descaler and another powerful surfactant known as biosurfactant, which occurs in nature and is obtained by fermentation
    • Rescued lemon and mint used to create fresh, clean-smelling fragrances
    • And sugar beet pulp, repurposed into thickener, so the loo cleaner sticks
  • How are each of the waste ingredients sourced and transformed into cleaning product ingredients?
    • Potato peels and similar food processing waste are fermented to fatty acids and treated with alcohol from zero alcohol breweries, and then converted into surfactants (the active ingredients that work hard to get things clean)
    • Supermarket food waste is collected from local supermarkets and contains a mix of food products no longer fit for sale. This can be due to exceeding expiration date, packaging damage or other reasons. This mix is the starting point for the production of both the lactic acid descaling agent and the biosurfactant production process, both of which rely on fermentation.
    • Rescued lemon and mint have been used to create fresh, clean-smelling fragrances. The lemon ingredients in the fragrance come from natural oils that would have otherwise been a waste product. The mint ingredient is a result of the redistillation of residues from a flowering plant in the mint family called Metha Arvensis.
    • Sugar beet pulp is a side product of sugar beet processing where the majority of the sugar beet serves as a starting point for sugar production. A portion of what remains of the beet that is unfit for sugar production can be used as a thickening system in a variety of products.
  • Are you the first cleaning brand to use waste ingredients?

    Whilst we are not the first cleaning brand to use waste ingredients, we are the first global cleaning brand to develop formulations using in excess of 80 per cent food waste-derived ingredients (excluding water). We hope that rethinking ingredients and how we see waste becomes the norm within the cleaning industry in time.

  • If the Too Good To Waste Multi-Surface Cleaner and Toilet Cleaner are created using 97 and 81 percent of waste ingredients (excluding water), respectively, what is the remaining percentage made of, for each product?

    The remaining percentage of the active ingredients are made of a partial mineral-based ingredients and non-waste derived sugars.

  • Are these products just as efficient and hard-working as the other products in the Ecover range?

    Both limited-edition Too Good To Waste products have been proven to provide an effective clean. The Too Good To Waste Multi-Surface Cleaner will remove grease and grime and the Toilet Cleaner has been proven to remove limescale.