A compilation of life cycle studies for six household detergent product categories in Europe: the basis for product-specific A.I.S.E. Charter Advanced Sustainability Profiles

Environmental Sciences Europe

Table 1 Functional unit and reference flow for the studied household product categories

Product category	Functional unit	Reference flow^a
Manual (hand) dishwashing detergent	The manual washing of four place settings^b	8 ml of detergent for the full sink scenario, and 12 ml for the direct application scenario^c
Compact powder and tablet laundry detergent	1 normally soiled wash^d	81.5 g of compact powder, or a powder tablet of 63.8 g
Window glass trigger spray	1 m² of a window or glass surface manually wetted and cleaned	10 ml of the product^e
Bathroom trigger spray	1 m² of a bathroom surface manually wetted and cleaned	10 ml of the product^f
Acid toilet cleaner	Cleaning one toilet bowl	50 ml of liquid acid toilet cleaner
Bleach toilet cleaner	cleaning one toilet bowl	80 l of liquid bleach cleaner

^aAll reference dosages were provided by A.I.S.E., based on experts’ opinion, taking into account the current market situation and consumer habits
^bFour complete sets of dishes and cutlery provided for one person at a meal [5, 6]
^cFor manual dishwashing, two scenarios were assessed, i.e. the full sink scenario in which the sink is filled up with water first and the dishes are washed but not rinsed, and the direct application scenario in which the tap runs while washing and rinsing, for at least part of the time. In both scenarios, drying of the place settings was excluded
^dAverage load (5 kg) of normally soiled cloth using medium hardness water in a 6 kg machine and with a reference wash temperature of 40 °C [14, 19]
^eWe assumed that 6.25 squirts are required to wet a surface of 1 m². On average, one trigger dose releases 1.6 ml
^fTo wet a surface of 1 m², five trigger doses are required. One trigger dose releases on average 1.2–2 ml of the product