Cleaner Has Solution To Cut Waste

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Buy a bottle of window cleaner, and you’re buying mostly water. Buy a concentrated solution, and you have to remember the right ratio of solution and water.

These are the annoyances that sparked the idea for a new product line from Replenish Bottling in Los Angeles. Called CleanPath, it consists of reusable plastic dispensing bottles attached to pods filled with cleaning concentrate.

Replenish launched CleanPath last month, and the products are now carried at 2,000 Wal-Marts nationwide.

Jason Foster, Replenish’s founder, said he wanted to create cleaning products that would be cheaper and less wasteful than popular brands, which are typically made of water with a small amount of active ingredients. And they usually come in plastic jugs that get tossed quickly.

“We’re selling people only what they need,” Foster said. “Not water and waste.”

Consumers attach the pod to the underside of the bottle, flip the bottle upside down, squeeze concentrate from the pod into a measuring cup inside the bottle and add water.

Each pod has enough concentrate for three full 10-ounce bottles, and bottles can last for up to 10 pods’ worth of uses. New bottles with a pod cost $3.58, and refill pods cost $2.28 each.

The line includes five products: window cleaner, multisurface cleaner, bathroom cleaner, foaming hand sanitizer and foaming hand soap.

Foster, who founded Replenish in 2009, said the company worked with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to create CleanPath, but he’s hoping to be able to license the refill technology in other industries such as beverages and hair care – think bottles with concentrate for sports drinks or shampoo.

“It’s like the Intel Inside,” he said. “We want to be the Intel Inside for consumer brands.”

– Subrina Hudson

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