Rethinking What Comes in a Bottle
Most cleaning and personal care products are 90% or more water. You’re shipping water in plastic bottles, paying for water, storing water — and then throwing away the bottle. The environmental and economic inefficiency is obvious once you see it.
Cleanery flips the model: sell concentrated powders. The consumer adds water at home. One bottle, refilled hundreds of times. The carbon footprint of shipping drops dramatically. Plastic waste plummets.
Mark Sorensen, Co-founder and CEO of Cleanery, has built an entire brand around this insight. In this conversation with Nour Abochama, he explains the “just add water” philosophy, the plant and mineral-powered formulas behind it, and his vision for an eco-friendly cleaning and personal care category.
The Refill Powder Model
Cleanery’s product architecture:
- Reusable bottles — glass or durable plastic, designed for long-term use
- Refill powder packets — concentrated formulas that dissolve in water to create the finished product
- Plant + mineral Actives — surfactants, chelators, and cleaning agents derived from plants and minerals rather than petroleum-based chemistry
The consumer experience: receive a bottle once. Order refill packets as needed. Add one packet to the bottle, add water, shake. Product ready. No new bottle. No shipping water.
The environmental math is compelling. Shipping powder uses a fraction of the packaging and fuel of shipping liquid. Recycling rates for flexible refill packets (where infrastructure exists) or compostable packaging options (where formulations allow) can further reduce waste.
Formulation: Plant and Mineral Powered
Traditional cleaning products rely on surfactants (detergents), builders (water softeners), and solvents. Many of these are petroleum-derived or synthetic. Cleanery’s formulations emphasize plant-derived and mineral-based alternatives.
Plant-derived surfactants: Coconut-derived surfactants, saponins from plants like soapberry, and other botanical sources can provide cleaning action without petroleum feedstocks.
Mineral builders: Sodium carbonate, citric acid, and other mineral compounds can soften water and enhance cleaning without phosphates or EDTA.
Essential oils and botanicals: For scent and additional cleaning/antimicrobial properties, plant extracts can replace synthetic fragrances.
The trade-off: plant and mineral formulas may require different dosing, different water temperatures, or slightly different expectations for performance. Mark discusses how Cleanery manages consumer expectations while delivering products that work — and that consumers will actually adopt.
Personal Care Extension
Cleanery has expanded beyond cleaning into personal care — body wash, hand soap, and other categories using the same refill powder model. The formulation challenges differ: personal care requires consideration of skin contact, pH, sensoriality (how it feels, lathers, smells).
For personal care products, regulatory considerations (cosmetics in the US, possible OTC drug status for antibacterial claims) apply. Nour’s laboratory perspective: any personal care product, especially one with water added at home, needs robust preservation to prevent microbial growth once the consumer creates the finished product. Cleanery’s refill packets are dry until use — which reduces preservative requirements at the powder stage — but the reconstituted product must be formulated to remain safe for use over its intended shelf life after mixing.
Building an Eco Brand in a Conventional Market
The cleaning category is dominated by legacy brands with deep retail relationships and advertising budgets. Eco-conscious brands operate at a scale disadvantage. Mark discusses how Cleanery competes: through direct-to-consumer relationships, storytelling, and a customer base that actively seeks out alternatives.
The future, in his view, depends on consumer behavior change — people choosing refill over single-use, and retailers and distributors making refill options available. Regulation (extended producer responsibility, plastic bans, carbon labeling) may accelerate the shift.
Key Takeaways
- Refill powder models dramatically reduce packaging waste and shipping carbon footprint by eliminating water from the supply chain
- Plant and mineral-powered formulas can deliver effective cleaning without petroleum-derived chemistry
- Personal care extensions of the refill model require careful preservation and stability consideration once consumers reconstitute products
- Eco brands succeed by building communities of consumers who actively seek alternatives and by advocating for regulatory and retail shifts
This article is based on Episode 41 of Nourify & Beautify. Watch the full conversation on YouTube or listen on Podbean.
