Ecover Household Cleaning

Ecover has been around for so long that it’s easy to forget how radical its original idea was. The company was founded in Belgium in 1979, after its founders became concerned about the damage conventional cleaning chemicals, particularly phosphates, were causing to waterways and aquatic life. Its first product was a phosphate-free washing powder, introduced more than a decade before phosphates were eventually restricted in household laundry detergents in Europe.

That puts Ecover in a very different category from the flood of cleaning brands that appeared after “eco” became commercially attractive. It was challenging conventional detergent chemistry in the 1970s, experimenting with refills in the 1980s and in 1992 opened its ecological factory in Malle, Belgium. The factory was constructed using more than 90% recycled or renewable materials, incorporated a green roof and was designed to reduce energy requirements through natural light and insulation. Today the site holds TRUE Platinum zero-waste certification.

Ecover’s central idea was that cleaning products shouldn’t simply be judged by whether they remove a stain. Everything that disappears down the plughole goes somewhere. Laundry detergent, washing-up liquid, toilet cleaner and floor cleaner eventually enter wastewater systems and potentially the wider environment. Ecover therefore evaluates ingredients against characteristics including biodegradability, aquatic toxicity, skin irritation and eye irritation as well as cleaning performance.

Household cleaning is one of the easiest places to become strangely disconnected from cause and effect. We spray something onto a surface, wipe it away and think it has vanished. It hasn’t vanished. We’ve just moved it somewhere else.

There is, however, a major change in Ecover’s story that I don’t want hidden underneath forty years of environmental credentials. Ecover is no longer independent.

Ecover and Method became part of People Against Dirty and the business was acquired by SC Johnson in 2017. SC Johnson is the American multinational behind brands including Raid, OFF!, Glade, Mr Muscle, Pledge, Duck, Windex, Ziploc, Scrubbing Bubbles, Method, Babyganics and Ecover.

So the small Belgian ecological pioneer and today’s Ecover aren’t the same corporate proposition. The products retain Ecover’s identity, factory and environmental programmes, but the company ultimately belongs to one of the world’s major household-products manufacturers.

Ecover covers most of the everyday cleaning jobs in a home.

Laundry is a major part of the range, including biological and non-biological liquids, powders, capsules, fabric softeners, stain removers and specialist products for delicate fabrics and wool.

Dishwashing includes the familiar washing-up liquids alongside dishwasher tablets, rinse aid and dishwasher cleaner.

Household cleaning extends into multi-surface sprays, bathroom cleaners, toilet cleaners, floor products, window and glass cleaner, oven and hob products and other specialist cleaners.

Then there is Ecover ZERO, which I think deserves much more attention than simply being treated as the sensitive-skin version of the main range. ZERO removes added fragrance and colouring, while some products also remove enzymes. Products in the range carry the Allergy UK Seal of Approval and are formulated specifically to minimise allergy risk.

For a home with babies, young children, eczema, sensitive skin or simply a desire to reduce unnecessary fragrance exposure, ZERO is the part of Ecover I’d investigate first.

Ecover also has one of the most established refill systems among mainstream household-cleaning brands. There are now more than 600 refill stations in the UK, covering products including laundry detergent and washing-up liquid.

Ecover was doing this before there was much commercial reward for doing it. It’s very easy for a multinational cleaning company in 2026 to launch a green range because consumers now actively look for one. Developing phosphate-free detergent in 1979 and refill systems in the 1980s is a different proposition entirely.

The factory is probably the clearest physical evidence that the environmental thinking went beyond the formulation. Ecover’s Malle factory was deliberately built as an ecological facility in 1992 using more than 90% recycled or renewable construction materials. Its design incorporated natural daylight, lower-energy materials and a living roof. The site has subsequently achieved TRUE Platinum zero-waste certification, the highest level within that certification programme.

The refill programme is another genuine strength. Recycling is useful, but continuously manufacturing another bottle, transporting it, using it once and then recycling it is still a resource-intensive loop. Keeping the bottle and filling it again is a much simpler idea. More than 600 UK refill locations makes that option considerably more practical than the token refill schemes offered by some brands.

The bottles themselves are also now made using 100% post-consumer recycled plastic. I’d still rather reuse one bottle repeatedly than recycle twenty of them, but turning plastic already in circulation back into packaging is preferable to continually manufacturing virgin plastic.

The company assesses ingredients against more than ten characteristics, including biodegradability, aquatic toxicity and irritation potential. Most ingredients are made from biodegradable substances.

It has also developed biologically produced surfactants using fermentation. Surfactants are the ingredients that help water lift grease and dirt, and they’re fundamental to detergents. Ecover has worked with universities and research institutions on producing surfactants using microorganisms rather than relying exclusively on conventional petrochemical manufacturing.

The sourcing isn’t perfect, but there’s evidence of serious thought behind it. Rapeseed used in products comes from European countries including France, Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Sunflower oil is sourced from France and Germany and linseed from France and the Netherlands. Ecover says it buys locally or within Europe where practical to reduce transport requirements.

Palm-derived ingredients are still used. Rather than pretending otherwise, Ecover is an RSPO member and accounts for its palm and palm-kernel oil through certified sustainable palm sourcing while also developing alternatives intended to reduce its dependence on palm.

I particularly like Ecover ZERO and been using it since my children were born. Fragrance has become so normal in household products that we’ve reached the strange point where freshly washed clothes apparently aren’t clean unless they continue releasing perfume for da ys. I don’t need my bedsheets, baby’s clothes, towels, kitchen surfaces and dishes competing to smell like synthetic interpretations of flowers.

ZERO contains no added fragrance or colouring and carries Allergy UK’s Seal of Approval. The ZERO washing powder also contains no enzymes. It’s an opportunity to reduce the number of unnecessary substances repeatedly coming into contact with skin and the home.

Animal welfare is another solid point. Ecover has been Leaping Bunny approved since 2011, and the certification covers its cleaning products and supply-chain requirements. The company states that it doesn’t use animal or insect-derived substances in its products.

Despite my reservations about what happened to the ownership, these environmental programmes didn’t simply disappear when SC Johnson arrived. The ecological factory still operates, the refill network has expanded, ZERO continues, Leaping Bunny certification remains and Ecover continues working on recycled packaging, fermentation-produced surfactants and alternative raw materials.

My biggest problem with Ecover is SC Johnson. I don’t like watching pioneering independent natural and environmental brands spend decades building trust and then become assets inside enormous consumer-goods corporations. In Ecover’s case the contrast is particularly stark.

The same corporate portfolio that contains Ecover also contains Raid, OFF!, Glade, Mr Muscle, Pledge and other conventional chemical household brands. That doesn’t alter the ingredients inside a bottle of Ecover ZERO of course. But ownership matters to me because when I spend money with a company, I’m not only buying the liquid in front of me. I’m supporting the wider business behind it. I would much rather Ecover had remained independent.

The acquisition also creates an uncomfortable animal-testing question for consumers. Ecover itself remains Leaping Bunny approved and states that neither its ingredients nor finished products are tested on animals by Ecover or on its behalf. That is independently audited and shouldn’t be erased simply because of its parent company.

But SC Johnson as a wider corporation isn’t Leaping Bunny certified across its entire global portfolio. For someone whose purchasing rule is that they won’t support any parent company involved with animal testing anywhere in its business, Ecover’s individual certification won’t resolve that objection.

Then there are the fragrances. Ecover’s standard range is greener than conventional cleaning in many respects, but it isn’t necessarily as “clean” as someone seeing the brand on a health-food-shop shelf might assume. Ecover itself states that its fragrances are at least 50% naturally derived.

“At least 50% naturally derived” means the fragrances aren’t entirely natural. Ecover says the synthetic components it uses are selected for biodegradability and assessed against environmental and health criteria, which is better than treating fragrance chemistry as irrelevant. But if my objective is reducing synthetic fragrance exposure in the home, I’d choose ZERO rather than convincing myself that every standard Ecover fragrance is purely botanical.

The current independent customer feedback is also surprisingly poor. At the time I researched Ecover, its Trustpilot profile was sitting at only around 1.6 out of 5 from just over 100 reviews. That’s an awful score, although the relatively small sample needs to be remembered for a brand sold on this scale.

More interesting than the number is what people are actually complaining about. There are repeated complaints about changes in fragrance, particularly laundry products that established customers say now smell too strong or unpleasant. Others complain that particular products simply don’t clean effectively enough. I found criticism of toilet cleaner performance, laundry products, washing-up liquid and changes customers believe have occurred in previously familiar formulations. Having used the toilet cleaner of this brand before, I agree with the customer reviews, there aren’t many cleaning products that actually make it worse than before you cleaned…

There are also reports of skin reactions. One 2026 reviewer specifically described a significant reaction to Ecover washing-up liquid despite having chosen the brand because of its eco-friendly positioning. A single review can’t establish what caused someone’s reaction, but it reinforces why I don’t treat “eco” as another word for hypoallergenic.

Some complaints are more practical. Customers have criticised refill packaging that’s awkward to use, including the toilet-cleaner bottle, where the angled neck makes transferring product from a large refill container difficult.

I actually find that criticism particularly irritating because a refill system needs to be easier than throwing the bottle away. Sustainable behaviour shouldn’t require a wrestling match with five litres of toilet cleaner.

On a final point, I don’t think Ecover goes far enough for me on fragrance in its mainstream range. The existence of ZERO proves that effective household products can be made without perfume. I’d like to see far more of the range move in that direction rather than fragrance-free cleaning remaining a specialist option for “sensitive” households.

Ecover’s strongest independent certification is Leaping Bunny, through Cruelty Free International. The brand has been approved since 2011 and undergoes auditing of its cruelty-free standards and supply chain.

The Ecover ZERO range carries the Allergy UK Seal of Approval. ZERO products are formulated without added fragrance and colouring and are designed to minimise the risk of allergic reactions.

Ecover’s ecological factory in Malle holds TRUE Platinum zero-waste certification. Platinum is the programme’s highest certification level.

For palm-derived ingredients, Ecover is a member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and uses RSPO mechanisms to account for the palm oil and palm-kernel oil used across its products.

Ecover’s various environmental claims shouldn’t be collapsed into “organic”, though. Ecover isn’t an organic household-cleaning brand in the same sense that a certified-organic skincare company is organic. Its environmental approach is principally about ingredient origin and biodegradability, aquatic impact, manufacturing, packaging, sourcing and waste reduction. That’s actually a more useful way to judge cleaning products than trying to force food-style organic terminology onto detergent chemistry.

The Ecover that was founded in Belgium by people sufficiently concerned about water pollution to develop phosphate-free washing powder before legislation forced the industry to change. That’s the Ecover I really like.

It experimented with refills in the 1980s. It built an ecological factory in 1992. It thought about what happened to detergent after it disappeared down the drain. It investigated plant-derived raw materials, biodegradability and aquatic toxicity while conventional household cleaning was still largely about making something powerful enough to strip dirt from a surface. A great deal of that survives.

The Malle factory is now TRUE Platinum zero-waste certified. Bottles use post-consumer recycled plastic. There are more than 600 refill stations across the UK. The company has developed biologically produced surfactants. Leaping Bunny certification remains. Ecover ZERO gives me genuinely fragrance-free options with Allergy UK approval. ZERO is probably where I’d spend most of my own money.

I don’t see why laundry that’s going against my skin all day needs perfume. I don’t need fragrance deposited on towels, bedding and children’s clothes to reassure me that they’ve been washed. And I certainly don’t need synthetic fragrance floating around the house simply to create an artificial smell of “clean”.

The Ecover that’s been sold to SC Johnson is a different picture. I don’t find the idea of an environmental cleaning pioneer sitting in the same corporate portfolio as Raid, Glade, OFF!, Pledge and Mr Muscle particularly appealing. The fact that Ecover itself remains independently Leaping Bunny approved is important and factual, but it doesn’t make the parent company irrelevant to my purchasing decisions.

I also think the standard Ecover range relies too heavily on fragrance for a company with this heritage. If the fragrance is only guaranteed to be at least 50% naturally derived, that isn’t the formulation I’d instinctively reach for when a fragrance-free alternative is sitting beside it.

I approve of many Ecover products, particularly the ZERO range, but I don’t give the entire brand an unquestioning Approved Brand status.

The original Ecover helped change what environmentally responsible household cleaning could look like, and much of its pioneering work deserves enormous credit. But today I would choose carefully within the range: ZERO first, refills wherever practical, simpler formulations over heavily fragranced ones and always with the knowledge that the independent Belgian eco company I might think I’m supporting is now ultimately part of SC Johnson.