At first glance, these might not seem like they have much to do with one another:

• Hot and cold barista-style coffees with the push of a button without compromising taste or expanding your carbon footprint.
• Diverting would-be diaper and baby wipes trash from landfills and into energy.
• A new way to do laundry that saves time and waste.

But they’re actually all intertwined by the innovative research and development defining the consumer packaged goods industry, as the brands we are proud to represent every day are always working toward making products that not only simplify consumers’ lives but reduce their environmental impact and contribute to a circular economy.

In March, three Consumer Brands members — Keurig Dr Pepper, Procter & Gamble and Kimberly-Clark — announced three separate new initiatives that are truly changing the landscape of what it means to deliver for consumers who want to feel good about their products — from what it does for their lives to knowing no part will end up in a landfill.

Keurig Dr Pepper 

Brew coffee with all its flavor and aroma with none of the packaging waste thanks to Keurig’s new plastic- and aluminum-free coffee pods. These single-serve pods are plant-based and made to preserve the ground coffee inside without any plastic or aluminum required. Even better, these plant-based pods will work for hot and cold coffees, so all that’s left to think about is what will be brewing today.

Keurig also announced a slate of initiatives aimed at achieving “innovation rooted in meeting the evolving needs of coffee-lovers and delivering against key product attributes including variety, quality, value and sustainability.” These offerings span the brand’s smallest brewer footprint — which won’t ask consumers to compromise on price — and a mail-back recycling program for consumers who don’t have ongoing access to a local facility that will recycle their coffee pods. Keurig’s research and development is keeping pace with the brand’s inaugural cold coffee brewer.

Read more from Keurig here.

Procter & Gamble 

Get ready for laundry to be easier and — environmentally — cleaner. P&G revealed its new Tide evo detergent, which it called “a leap forward in laundry innovation driven by consumer insights.” The laundry tile “leverages tens of thousands of miniscule fibers, creating layers of soap without unnecessary liquid and fillers. Its instant activation in water ensures sufficient cleaning.”

With the Tide evo, consumers have access to a lightweight, fully concentrated laundry solution — eliminating the need to seek out a plastic bottle for superior clean. Now, Tide comes in a lightweight paperboard and ready-to-recycle box, so the task of bring detergent to the laundry room is as simple as recycling the packaging itself. Then, once Tide evo interacts with water, the cleaning process starts — bringing the clean of Tide that consumers know and trust into a breakthrough new laundry product.

Tide evo is produced at a renewable energy-powered facility and is designed from the very beginning to perform great in cold water — one of the best ways for consumers to lessen the environmental load when doing laundry. And, in any temperature, Tide evo works great.

Read more from P&G here.

Kimberly-Clark 

The makers of Huggies Brand diapers is embarking on a partnership with Bright Horizon child care centers in Boston for a breakthrough initiative, Waste-to-Energy, in which used diapers and wipes will be turned into electricity, heat or fuel, and could keep thousands of pounds of trash from ending up in landfills.

Kimberly-Clark partner Covanta powers the Waste-to-Energy technology that creates steam to produce electricity, circumventing the need for fossil fuels and minimizing carbon emissions and methane that is generated at landfills. This step to find more circular solutions for families in the Boston area is meant to serve as a pilot that could eventually expand into new regions.

Read more from Kimberly-Clark here.

We’re proud of our members who are doing the work to create solutions that meet consumers’ needs and do good for the earth.