Controversy Grows Over PVA Detergent Pods [View all]

As you might have seen recently, there is a growing controversy over those convenient little detergent pods that so many of us use to wash our clothes and dishes.

What’s the big deal? In short, PVA – or polyvinyl alcohol – is plastic. While it’s a material we all use, it’s also marketed within the pod industry as being eco friendly, biodegradable, and even all natural. The plastic, PVA coating on the pods holds the detergent and dissolves away once it makes contact with water, thus releasing the detergent from within.

“The concern begins when we ask what happens to that plastic coating,” says Dr. Charlie Rolsky, co-author of the study that has sparked the controversy and executive director of the Shaw Institute, in Blue Hill, Maine. “PVA is water soluble, just like sugar or salt, which once added to water, disappears in time, but as we can taste, still very much remains within the water itself. The same is true of PVA.”

Forbes, Bloomberg, Fast Company, The Washington Post and many other large media outlets have been reporting on this for nearly two years, as Rolsky’s study suggests that manufacturers of PVA detergent pods are falsely claiming them to be biodedradable and/or “eco friendly.”

https://www.dcreport.org/2024/03/03/controversy-grows-over-pva-detergent-pods/