The EU Ecolabel criteria for hand dishwashing detergents are under revision. This revision process will take into account the current market conditions and the EU Ecolabel criteria will aim at addressing the most important environmental impacts of the hand dishwashing detergents in a life cycle perspective. The identification of the main hotspots is carried out in this study by means of an initial extensive literature review and subsequent LCA studies. LCA studies showed that the largest contribution to the environmental impact profile of hand dishwashing detergents is - by far - the use phase, particularly the energy needed to heat the water. For some impact categories, the sourcing of raw materials and the end of life are also important. Based on the normalisation assessment, by far the most important impact categories for hand dishwashing detergents in Europe are natural land transformation and fossil depletion. The study reveals that there are several improvement opportunities such reduction in the wash temperature or used of concentrated detergents. Changes in the detergent formulation can also reduce the impacts in different categories.

MEDYNA Galyna;  BOYANO LARRIBA Alicia;  KAPS Renata Barbara;  ARENDORF Josefine;  BOJCZUK Katherine;  GOLSTEIJN Laura;  GAASBEEK Anne;  SKINNER Dan; 

2015-11-04

Publications Office of the European Union

JRC96852

978-92-79-50317-7,   

1831-9424,   

EUR 27381,    OP LF-NA-27381-EN-N,   

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC96852,   

10.2791/756629,