Designing for the Future: Reducing Plastic with Yashinomi
Yashinomi detergent was launched in Japan in 1971 as a dishwashing detergent that is harmless to people and the earth, at the time when petroleum-based synthetic detergents were still commonly used. Made with cleaning ingredients derived from palm nuts, this plant-based detergent, gentle to the skin and highly biodegradable, doesn’t include any added fragrances or coloring, reducing its components to those only necessary for cleaning.
Several years later, in 1982, Saraya was the first in Japan to release a refill package for our dishwashing detergents. At that time, people would normally just throw bottles after usage, but we proposed a new "let's reuse bottles!" lifestyle and appealed to the world to protect its resources and reduce waste. From there on, and with the help of those who supported our brand, Yashinomi has become a long-selling product of Saraya based on the following concepts:
- Made with plant-based ingredients that gently protect your skin.
- Made with high-biodegradability components that decompose in wastewater, preserving our Earth's beauty.
- Treating our resources with care, reducing the waste we generate.
Continuing the reduction of plastic use with eco-friendly alternatives
From parents to children, to grandchildren. As generations have grown with our detergents, we have been even known in Japan as “Saraya of Yashinomi detergents”. Feeling obligated to meet our consumer expectations and support, we have taken another step in eco-friendliness this year, 2021, by starting to replace our plastic packaging with recycled or biomass plastics.
The recycled plastics we use are created from plastic that has been collected, washed, crushed, and recycled into raw material. With recycled plastic utilization growing in Japan, the amount of virgin (new) plastic can be reduced, since the physical characteristics of both plastics as a raw material have no difference.
On the other hand, biomass plastic has a completely biological origin: plants instead of petroleum. Unlike the latter, biological raw materials can be regenerated in a shorter cycle, which makes sustainable manufacturing possible.
We are still in the middle of replacing some of the plastic materials we use with these environmentally-friendly plastics, but we will continue to research other ways to gradually increase our blending ratios.
We hope that everyone who uses Yashinomi detergent will be optimistic about the future of the Earth, as we take a step forward in our efforts in protecting the environment.
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