ABSTRACT
As the annual global consumption of surface-active agents reaches about 13 × 106 metric tons and the detergent ingredients market more than $9 billion in sales, the cleaning products industry embraces sustainability. Recently, the environmental impact of consumer products has gone from being a fringe issue to a mainstream concern. Thus, regardless of the state of affairs in the detergent industry worldwide, with respect to scientifi c, technological, economics, safety, and “greening”- related regulation of detergent production and formulation, the basic modes of the latter’s applications, particularly domestically, will continue to be an issue of major concern. Yet, given our increasingly fast-moving world, customers’ demands are for products that are more effective and can help to save time for the customers. This means more demands for products that are faster acting, easier to use, more effi cient, and environment-friendly. This is so in view of the operating global free-market economy, which is expected to ensure sustainable development, given the contemporary shifts in consumer preferences, availability and cost of raw materials and energy, demographic and social trends, and the overall economical/political situation, worldwide.
