Danish supermarket drops fabric softener
The Local Denmark - [email protected]
Published: 14 Oct, 2014 CET.
Updated: Tue 14 Oct 2014 08:38 CET
Retail giant Coop announced that environmental concerns have led it to stop selling fabric softener at its Irma stores.
The upscale Danish supermarket chain Irma will no longer sell fabric softener, saying it is an unnecessary product that harms the environment. The decision was announced by Coop Danmark, which in addition to Irma, operates the grocery chains Kvickly, Fakta and Superbrugsen. Fabric softener will still be sold in the other stores. “We know that our customers are very aware of the environment and they expect us to show responsibility,” Signe Frese, the head of CSR for Coop, said in a statement. The drinking water and waste water organisation DANVA praised the decision. “We should focus on stopping pollution at the source. Fabric softener is an unnecessary additive that increases the burden on wastewater plants and at the same time affects the water environment because the treatment plants cannot completely remove the chemicals,” DANVA’s Helle Katrine Andersen said in a statement. On the decision to continue to sell fabric softener in its other chains, Coop’s Frese said that not all of the retailer’s customers “are ready for this journey yet”. “If we eliminate it from Coop, it will just mean that consumers can go over to another store and buy it if they are unaware of the environmental pollution they are helping to cause,” Frese told DR. According to a Coop analysis, 47 percent of Danes use fabric softener.
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The upscale Danish supermarket chain Irma will no longer sell fabric softener, saying it is an unnecessary product that harms the environment.
The decision was announced by Coop Danmark, which in addition to Irma, operates the grocery chains Kvickly, Fakta and Superbrugsen.
Fabric softener will still be sold in the other stores.
“We know that our customers are very aware of the environment and they expect us to show responsibility,” Signe Frese, the head of CSR for Coop, said in a statement.
The drinking water and waste water organisation DANVA praised the decision.
“We should focus on stopping pollution at the source. Fabric softener is an unnecessary additive that increases the burden on wastewater plants and at the same time affects the water environment because the treatment plants cannot completely remove the chemicals,” DANVA’s Helle Katrine Andersen said in a statement.
On the decision to continue to sell fabric softener in its other chains, Coop’s Frese said that not all of the retailer’s customers “are ready for this journey yet”.
“If we eliminate it from Coop, it will just mean that consumers can go over to another store and buy it if they are unaware of the environmental pollution they are helping to cause,” Frese told DR.
According to a Coop analysis, 47 percent of Danes use fabric softener.
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