Greetings. I'd been following this thread for a little while and thought I'd chime in.
Green-washing is a concept that describes the psychological marketing tactic of portraying a product as Eco-friendly or sustainable through the use of unsubstantiated claims and/or intentionally misleading verbiage. I am fairly certain that these Tide Tiles in question are nothing more than a green-washed gimmick. Let me explain:
I follow a popular "laundry expert" and dry-cleaner on social media who has been advertising these tiles for some time now. Each post of theirs contains a paid-partnership disclaimer (important to note). Curious, I began researching these tiles and have discovered absolutely zero (0) claims by Tide that the actual tiles themselves are free of plastic. Tide's official "evo" webpage makes it blatantly clear that this product is free of plastic insofar as the packaging goes.
I quote: "100% concentrated. 0% plastic bottle."
These tiles are nothing more than compressed squares of fibrous detergent that I can only theorize cost more money and energy to create than the usual process of mixing powdered detergent builders. I imagine these detergent "fibers" are made of regular powders spun into threads like cotton candy, formed into matted layers, sandwiched together between layers of -- you guessed it -- PVA plastic, and hydraulically pressed into cute tiles.
I have yet to actually find an ingredients list, but an unlabelled expanded diagram shared by Tide would suggest that each of its six layers are different from each other. This leads me to believe that one layer may be entirely plastic adhesive (as one "layer" of a Tide Pod is plastic in the form of the casing) or that each layer is adhered to the other through a thin layer of adhesive between one another. My guess is that these adhesives will not be disclosed because "trade secrets" or "no effect on detergent functionality," etc.
That's my two cents on the tiles themselves. There's also the problem of quantity per package. There come, like, 20-something tiles per box. Tide suggests using one (1) tile per small-to-medium load and two (2) tiles for larger loads. The resulting yield is...not a lot, to say the least. But, hey -- at least their colorful box is recyclable and free of plastic! Feel free to spend more money on less washes and send more paper to the recycling bin (if it even makes it there in the first place).
There's something to be said about the push to use cold water indiscriminately with this (and other) product(s). Like all other green-washed products on the market, this one also "dissolves cleanly in cold water," because why not? That's an entirely different conversation I am too weak to have at this point. I digress.
Let's overlook the financial costs involved in the production of these tiles, their packaging, and the transportation of product from factory to store. While we're at it, let's also overlook the environmental impact involved in the production of these tiles, their packaging, and the transportation of these pretty little boxes, too. Since we're on a roll, let's also pretend the consumer will /not/ be responsible to offset increased costs by having to purchase more packs more frequently for more money.
Doesn't quite compute if you ask me. But what do I know...
https://tide.com/en-us/our-commitment/tide-evo
