A: When used to contain detergents, PVOH films have several benefits: 

• By encapsulating a single dose of a product, PVOH films are helping to take the guess work out of measuring.   This is especially important for users with physical disabilities. It also prevents users from wasting detergent by using too much.
• The use of these films to make detergent packets also allows for use of more concentrated formulas. This means significantly less water in cleaning product formulas which means reduced packaging waste, less weight and fewer CO2 emissions from transporting these products. 
• Encapsulating the highly concentrated detergent helps to make sure that users are not coming into contact with the products inside the detergent packet which could irritate skin. 

A: Microplastics are microscopic solid particles made of synthetic polymer that are insoluble in water and typically resistant to biodegradation in the aquatic environment. Although our understanding of microplastics is evolving, California’s proposed definition refers to particles that are solid (i.e. not water soluble) polymeric materials that have at least two dimensions greater than 1 but less than 5,000 micrometers (µm). Such plastics may be intentionally added (such as microbeads), or result from progressive physical fragmentation of plastic objects into smaller and smaller particles that can take place in the environment. Such particles can be ingested and potentially transfer within food chains. Further, microplastics are practically impossible to remove from the environment after release. 

A: Although PVA films have similar properties to many plastics such as flexibility, they fully dissolve in water when used and the dissolved polymers are fully biodegraded by microorganisms in water treatment facilities and the environment. Whereas microplastics are persistent in the environment and do not biodegrade.

A: PVA films used in detergents must meet strict standards of OECD’s test guidelines for biodegradability (301B). There is also a wealth of peer reviewed journal information that studies the biodegradability of these films. In a recent study (Byrne, et al., 2021) researchers could not find indications that film from detergent capsules is present in microplastic found in marine environments.

A: When a detergent packet enters a washing machine, the PVOH film encapsulating the product readily dissolves in the water (including cold water), allowing the highly concentrated detergent it contains to do the work of cleaning. The PVOH film will completely dissolve and at the end of the cycle, dissolved polymers go down the drain along with dirt and other detergent ingredients contained in the wash. This water will go to a wastewater treatment facility where bacteria and other microbes in the environment complete the degradation of the dissolved film.

• Biodegradability of Polyvinyl Alcohol Based Film Used for Liquid Detergent Capsules, D. Byrne, G. Boeije, I. Croft, G. Huttmann, G. Luijkx, F. Meier, Y Parulekar, and G. Stijntejes, De Gruyter, March 2021.
• Raw Materials Supplier and Detergent Manufacturer Cooperate in Environmental Safety Assessment of a New Detergent Raw Material – A Case Study, F. Meier, N. Stetler, D.M. Lee, N. Zeese, J. Tolls, SOFW Journal, 139, March 2013
• Some Characteristics of Pseudomonas 0-3 which Utilizes Polyvinyl Alcohol, T. Suzuki, Y. Ichihara, M. Yamada, and K. Tonomura