PVA is an abbreviation that can represent many different types of ingredients.
Firstly, Polyvinyl Acetate is an adhesive often used in glue and is different than Polyvinyl Alcohol, which is often found in water-soluble films on many cleaning products and binding agents in newly created products like Concentrated Laundry Detergent Sheets and Strips.
There is some confusion around the earth-friendliness of Polyvinyl Alcohol. Mainly because there are different kinds of Polyvinyl Alcohols.
There is petroleum-based PVA and plant-based PVA, and within those categories also lie varying levels of biodegradability.
Eco Clean Concentrated Laundry Detergent Sheets use Plant-Based (Derived from Coconut) PVA. Our plant-based PVA is dissolvable in water. And, it is biodegradable in aerobic (commercial composting facilities) and nonaerobic (“backyard composting”) environments. This means that it breaks down in the wash and eventually biodegrades into a benign monomer that is ocean-life-friendly and decomposes into other nutrients over time; therefore, is not a source of microplastic pollution.
Symbiotic Products LLC and Eco Clean Sheets go further by using only pharmaceutical-grade PVA (not simply industrial grade). That ensures that it is an extremely safe macromolecular organic matter, non-toxic to the human body, and has good biocompatibility. That’s a lot of words that mean it is safe for humans.
Symbiotic Products LLC created Eco Clean products to move us towards a petroleum-based-plastic-free world. We believe that Eco Clean Concentrated Laundry Detergent Sheets are one small step in that direction.