When you stop to think about it, much of the cleaning products or personal care products that we’re shipping around the world is water with ingredients mixed in to clean, moisturize, or do whatever you need. Now imagine if we could remove the water and only ship the additive. It could come in dry tablet or bar form and, depending on its use, could be dissolved in water to create a product just as strong as anything you’d buy at the store, or used in bar form directly on your body.
This would save money, hassle (who loves lugging heavy jugs of detergent home from the store?), and environmental impact (think of the carbon emissions required to get that jug from its manufacturer to your home). Not to mention it would save plastic.
The good news is, this isn’t something that only exists within our imagination—several companies are jumping on the ‘dehydration’ bandwagon, such as Blueland, a new cleaning company that sells its products in tablet form for $2 a pop. You buy a starter kit upfront that comes with reusable spray bottles, then pop in a tablet and fill with tap water.
Lush is another popular example, offering its dry bath bombs and cake-like soaps without any packaging. These are just a few examples of an industry that’s starting to take off. Expect to see more of this model in coming years, as businesses realize that disposable packaging of any kind is a dead-end and that everyone comes out ahead when smaller, drier products are shipped, rather than heavy liquid jugs.
