A detergent contains surfactants. These surfactants are powerful cleaning agents which clean well even in hard water. A downside of using surfactants is that they have leaching properties. They have potent chemicals that react with clothes, containers, floor, and other surfaces. The result is a tan-like appearance on the affected surface. If stored in a weak packaging material, detergents can react and create new chemicals. The new chemicals may decrease the efficiency of detergents, create foul odors, and may even start a leak.

It happens in detergents, but not in soaps, because of the different composition of the two products. Soaps are milder cleaning agents compared to detergents. Detergents are a relatively new invention. They were first made during the period between the two world wars. There was a severe shortage of animal and vegetable fats then. These fats are a crucial raw material in soap making. When the fats were running short in supply, researchers found a way to convert petrochemicals into a cleansing agent. They used petroleum as raw material because there were ample sources of the fossil fuel then.

When it comes to packaging detergents in plastic, several arguments can be made in its favor. Firstly, heavy duty plastic such as high density polyethylene (HDPE) provides a strong and inert barrier for detergents. The advantages of this barrier are twofold – (a) it remains inert, that is, it does not react with the chemicals found in a detergent; and (b) it provides high resistance packaging which keeps your product fresh for longer. A plastic packaging material such as a plastic pouch maintains the potency and freshness of a detergent by keeping out the degrading environmental factors such as moisture.

There is another strong argument in favor of using plastic in detergent packaging – cost. It is less expensive to use a plastic packaging container over a metal container or a glass bottle. Spouted stand up bags are probably the least expensive of all detergent packaging options available. These bags are not only inexpensive to produce, they save companies a fortune on storage and transportation costs. One thousand of these bags can fit inside a large carton, but a thousand glass bottles or metal containers will occupy a lot of space in a room. These bags save costs in another way, too. The minimum run of these stand up bags is merely 5000, which is the lowest in the entire packaging industry.