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Walk into any cleaner’s storage room today and you’ll see the same scene repeated across hotels, hospitals, childcare centers, gyms, restaurants, aged care, and commercial sites everywhere:
Stacks of 5L plastic chemical cans.
Leaky, sticky floors from spills.
Shelves overloaded with bulky jerrycans.
Half-used bottles.
Dilution stations that look like chemistry labs.
It has become so normal…
that nobody questions it anymore.
But the truth is simple:
5L plastic chemical cans are one of the most wasteful, expensive, and environmentally damaging parts of the entire cleaning industry.
Not because people don’t care.
Not because teams want to waste.
But because the system was designed in a different era, an era where sustainability wasn’t measured, logistics weren’t optimized, and proof didn’t matter.
Today, everything has changed.
And those old cans come with hidden costs most businesses never see — until they finally do the math.
This blog breaks down the invisible costs hiding behind those plastic canisters… and why businesses across Australia, the GCC, and Canada are now switching to Proof Powered Impact Cleaning.
The Cost Nobody Calculates: You’re Paying to Ship Water
Here’s the part the chemical industry never advertises:
Most liquid cleaning chemicals are 90% water.
That means every 5L plastic can your business buys is mostly… the one ingredient you already have at your site: water.
So what are you really paying for?
- Transporting water
- Shipping heavy plastic
- Freight pallets
- Storage space
- Waste disposal
- CO₂ emissions
- Handling unnecessary weight
It’s not just inefficient, it’s expensive.
Most operators don’t realize how much this adds up.
A simple example:
1 pallet of liquid chemicals:
- 48 x 5L cans
- ~240kg of weight
- Mostly water
1 carton of cleaning tablets:
- Weighs less than 5kg
- Replaces the same pallet output
- No wasted space
- No water transported
Impact Cleaning eliminates the water from the supply chain.
It moves the value back into your hands, where you add the water yourself, at the moment of use.
The Plastic Problem No One Wants to Own
Every 5L can = 180 – 250 grams of plastic.
Most of this ends up in landfills.
Not because people don’t try to recycle but because:
- Cleaning chemicals contaminate plastic
- Recycling centers reject hazardous containers
- Many cans still have residue
- Labels + adhesives make recycling harder
- Logistics of washing cans is too expensive
So what happens?
They get thrown out.
A medium-sized cleaning company can produce thousands of plastic cans a year.
A national chain? Tens of thousands.
This is the part that keeps ESG teams awake at night because for the first time, regulators and customers are asking:
- How much plastic did your cleaning operations generate?
- How much can you eliminate?
- Is it measurable?
Traditional chemicals fail on all three.
CO₂e Emissions: The Freight Footprint Nobody Sees
5L chemical cans create emissions long before they ever reach a bucket or spray bottle.
Every part of the lifecycle is carbon-heavy:
- manufacturing the plastic
- forming the can
- filling it
- palletizing
- trucking
- warehouse storage
- distribution to sites
- disposal
CO₂e emissions multiply across the chain.
Why liquid chemicals are emission-heavy:
- Heavier product = more fuel required
- More pallets = more trucks
- Larger warehouses = more energy
- More frequent reorders = more transport cycles
- More storage space = higher operating cost
Cleaning tablets eliminate 90% of this weight and volume — a simple switch with an enormous impact.
Storage Costs: The Silent Expense Eating Into Your Margins
Every facility manager knows the pain:
Storerooms fill up fast.
Chemical cans take up massive space even when empty.
Teams stack them on floors, shelves, in cupboards, in utility rooms.
The space they occupy costs money.
Let’s break it down:
Liquid chemicals:
- Require racks & shelves
- Need safety signage
- Must comply with handling rules
- Take up cubic meters of space
- Often overflow into operational areas
Tablets:
- Fit into small boxes
- Can be stacked easily
- Require no special storage
- Free up valuable real estate
For hotels, restaurants, gyms, childcare centers, and hospitals, freed storage space translates directly into operational efficiency.
Dilution Mistakes: The Hidden Waste Nobody Measures
The industry loses millions every year to dilution mistakes:
- Overpouring
- Guessing ratios
- Spillage
- Broken caps
- Staff adding “extra for strength”
- Using the wrong chemical
- Filling bottles incorrectly
With 5L cans, everything is manual.
The more humans handle liquids, the more waste happens.
The real losses include:
❌ wasted chemicals
❌ extra reorders
❌ increased cost-per-clean
❌ incorrect application
❌ inconsistent cleaning quality
❌ safety risks
❌ environmental harm
Earthy Tabs solves this by design:
One tablet = one perfectly dosed clean.
No overuse.
No spills.
No waste.
Labour Time: The Cost of Handling Liquid Chemicals
Most operators underestimate how much time staff waste on:
- opening heavy cans
- lifting 5L containers
- diluting into bottles
- wiping up spills
- managing multiple chemical SKUs
- reordering and stock-checking
- logging storage volumes
These labour costs stack up quickly.
Impact Cleaning reduces this dramatically:
- drop a tablet
- add water
- start cleaning
Time saved → money saved.
Compliance & Safety: The Risks Hidden in Liquid Chemicals
Liquid chemicals come with compliance responsibilities:
- hazardous goods storage
- spill response procedures
- safe handling training
- PPE requirements
- transport regulations
Tablets reduce the majority of these risks:
- no heavy lifting
- no spills
- less chemical exposure
- simpler handling
- fewer dilution errors
For childcare, aged care, hospitals, and hospitality this is a major operational advantage.
Waste Management: Another Cost Nobody Calculates
When a 5L can is empty, the cost isn’t gone:
- someone must rinse it (time)
- place it in a bin (labour)
- bins fill faster (more pickups)
- facilities pay higher waste fees
- contaminated plastic costs more to dispose
Multiply that across 12 months…
and the waste cost becomes significant.
Cleaning tablets create almost no waste.
Why Businesses Don’t Notice These Costs (Yet)
Three reasons:
1. They’re hidden inside normal operations
Everyone lifts cans, spills liquids, and stacks bottles — so nobody questions it.
2. “We’ve always done it this way” is a strong habit
The cleaning industry is slow to change, despite heavy inefficiencies.
3. No technology has existed to measure impact — until now
Without data, it’s easy to ignore the waste.
This is exactly why Earthy Tabs built the Impact Calculator — to show operators the truth behind their chemical footprint.
SECTION 10 — The Real Cost Comparison (Liquid vs. Tablets)
Here’s a simplified breakdown:
| Cost Category | 5L Liquid Chemicals | Earthy Tabs Tablets |
| Freight | High (heavy, bulky) | Low (lightweight) |
| Storage | High (bulk space) | Low (minimal space) |
| Dilution | High waste | Zero waste |
| Labour | High handling time | Minimal handling |
| Spills | Frequent | None |
| Plastic Waste | Very high | None |
| CO₂e | High emissions | Low emissions |
| Data Reporting | None | Built-in impact tracking |
When you calculate total ownership costs, it becomes obvious:
Liquids are the most expensive cleaning format ever created.
Tablets are the most efficient.
A Real-World Example (One Cleaning Company)
A commercial cleaning company servicing 20 sites:
Using 5L Liquid Chemicals:
- 1,200 plastic cans per year
- 360kg of plastic
- 2,500kg CO₂e in transport emissions
- 22m³ of storage space
- 20–30% dilution waste
- Zero measurable sustainability data
Using Earthy Tabs:
- 0 plastic cans
- <4kg packaging per year
- <300kg CO₂e in transport emissions
- 2–3m³ of storage space
- No dilution waste
- Full impact dashboard
This is what a system-level shift looks like.
Impact Cleaning: The Solution to Every Hidden Cost
Earthy Tabs eliminates:
- plastic waste
- unnecessary freight
- storage overload
- dilution errors
- labour inefficiencies
- safety risks
- carbon footprint
- sustainability data gaps
Instead, it introduces:
- a tab-first format
- proof-powered reporting
- consistent dosing
- space-light logistics
- audit-ready impact data
- a modern cleaning system
This isn’t a new product category.
This is a new way of cleaning.Internal Link Opportunity:
Learn what this new category means in Blog #1:
“What Is Impact Cleaning? The New Standard for Commercial Cleaning Teams”
(/blog/what-is-impact-cleaning)
The Bottom Line: 5L Cans Are Costing You More Than You Think
When you add everything together
freight, storage, waste, plastic, time, CO₂e, safety, compliance, and lost efficiency —
5L chemical cans become one of the most expensive supply chain choices a business can make.
Tablets reverse the equation.
They give you:
- higher performance
- lower cost-per-clean
- zero waste
- measurable sustainability
- simpler workflows
- leaner operations
This is why companies across the world are shifting from cans to counts.
Calculate the True Cost of Your Chemicals
If you want to see how much your site is wasting through 5L cans:
Use the Impact Calculator
Switch to Impact Cleaning
Book a discovery call
The hidden costs disappear the moment you switch.
Your impact becomes visible the moment you measure it.
