Super-concentrated, round 2

All laundry detergents are suddenly in smaller bottles. They're all "ultra," they say, or "super concentrated." The point is that you can use less detergent with each load, reducing the quantity of detergent you use and the size of the bottle it comes in. It's all part of how we can all be more "green" and leave a smaller "carbon footprint."

Funny, I remember this same thing happened in the 1980s when the masses discovered recycling. Then, as now, detergent bottles were suddenly and dramatically downsized. They were labeled "ultra" and "super concentrated." Later, as recycling received less publicity, the bottles gradually grew again and the "concentrated" labeling disappeared.

As this happened, I assumed the detergent was still concentrated, but they were ramping up the bottle sizes again. Still concentrated detergent, just more of it. I mean, why wouldn't they concentrate detergent as much as they can?

But now that we have entered a second concentrated, smaller-bottle period, it has me wondering about this assumption. Is detergent now even more concentrated than it was in the 1980s or did they revert to less concentrated formulas after the public pressure to recycle either waned or became the norm? The new concentrated detergents do not seem any thicker than their immediate predecessors, which was not the case in the 1980s during the first concentrated detergent period. The detergents then were noticeably thicker and more gelatinous, less watery.

I suspect Wal-Mart may have had something to do with this. Wal-Mart was becoming a behemoth at the same time the first concentrated detergent period was ending. Maybe the price pressures they exerted on suppliers forced the detergent companies to put less concentrated formulas in bigger bottles. Maybe that's the only way the detergent companies could supply Wal-Mart with their product and still make money.

Okay, that's probably enough time spent writing about concentrated laundry detergents...