Are Koh sheet and tablet products free from plastic?Updated 5 hours ago

TL;DR: Not strictly, and it's worth being precise about which part is which. The outer box is cardboard. The wrapper around each tab or sheet is PVA, a water-soluble film, and PVA is a synthetic polymer, so calling these products plastic-free would be wrong. What the film does instead of persisting as a solid fragment is dissolve in the wash and get removed during standard wastewater treatment. Independent peer-reviewed research on detergent-grade PVA film found average removal of around 97 per cent in the OECD 303A wastewater treatment simulation.

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Koh Loo Cleaner Tabs cardboard box with individually wrapped tablets

Koh Dishwashing Tabs cardboard box with individually wrapped tablets

Are Koh sheet and tablet products free from plastic?

✓ The box: cardboard

The outer box on Koh Loo Cleaner Tabs, Dishwashing Tabs and Sensitive Laundry Sheets is cardboard. In most council areas that goes into kerbside paper and cardboard recycling, but what's accepted varies by council, so check your local rules.

Cardboard Check your council rules

✓ The wrapper: water-soluble PVA film

Each tab or sheet is wrapped in PVA, short for polyvinyl alcohol. PVA is a synthetic polymer, so these products aren't plastic-free in the strict sense and Koh doesn't describe them that way.

What it does instead is dissolve on contact with water and go into the wash with the tab. There's nothing to unwrap and nothing left in the machine.

Water-soluble Dissolves in the wash No unwrapping

What is PVA?

✓ A water-soluble film

PVA, or polyvinyl alcohol, is a water-soluble synthetic polymer used to make dissolvable films and wrappers. On contact with water it dissolves into the wash and leaves no visible residue.

Water soluble Dissolves at normal wash temperatures

✓ Used widely across industries

PVA has been used for decades in cleaning products, food packaging, textiles and pharmaceuticals. The film grade in dishwasher tablets, laundry pods and Koh's wrappers is formulated to dissolve fully at normal household water temperatures.

Detergent-grade film Decades of use

What about the box and the outer packaging?

✓ Cardboard outer, less weight per wash

The box is cardboard. In most Australian council areas that goes into the kerbside paper and cardboard bin, but acceptance varies, so check your local rules. Flatten it first so it sorts properly at the facility.

A wrapped tab or sheet is far smaller and lighter than the same number of washes in a bottled liquid, which means smaller boxes and less weight to ship per wash.

Cardboard box Flatten before recycling Check your council rules Less weight per wash

What does the research say?

✓ OECD 303A wastewater simulation

Independent peer-reviewed research published in 2024 in Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management tested detergent-grade PVA film against the OECD 303A wastewater treatment simulation. That's the standard method regulators use to assess how a substance is removed during normal sewage treatment.

The study found average removal of around 97 per cent. Environmental modelling using the United States EPA's E-FAST tool and the European Union's EUSES tool put predicted environmental concentrations well below ecological effect thresholds.

Worth being straight with you: the breakdown of this class of film is an active area of academic research, and the grade Koh uses is formulated specifically for rapid dissolution and breakdown under standard wastewater treatment conditions.

Around 97 per cent removal OECD 303A method Peer reviewed 2024