The detergent industry pays a lot of attention to environmental considerations such as how much (or little) product is needed to do the job. Take a glance through history and it is easy to see why.
Go back 4 to 5 decades and it was not unusual to find Western European waterways frothing with foam that came from household detergents.
The absence of this phenomenon nowadays is testament to both improvements in sewage treatment and innovations in the manufacture of washing powders and liquids.
Starting in the 1960s, industry bodies such as the International Association for Soaps, Detergents and Maintenance Products (AISE) fostered the move to more biodegradable surfactants
Over the years, this attention has broadened to cover a range of other safety and sustainability issues, such as detergent compaction.
Being able to provide more 'washing muscle' per unit of product makes sound business sense because smaller packages are easier to make, store and transport. But consumers have not always bought into the idea that small is beautiful.
Some attempts to put radically more compact products on the market, led users to think they were getting less for their money.
So recent initiatives have focused on gradual compaction, steadily reducing the volume and weight of detergent needed for the same amount of cleaning.
These more compact products are better for the environment on all counts. They use up fewer raw materials. They use less energy in manufacturing. They use less space in warehouses or distribution centres (so less power is used for heating and lighting).
Also, more of the compact products can be transported per pallet or trailer, so fewer trips are needed for their distribution, cutting down on vehicle carbon emissions. And at the end of the day, fewer chemicals will be released into the environment through waste water.
These benefits apply not just to the detergent itself, but also to its packaging, since compact products can fit into smaller boxes or bottles. So the manufacturing, distribution and your home use of today's detergent packs uses less energy and creates less waste than it used to.