Australia is a dry continent and water conservation is critical to our sustainability. Many homes in rural and regional Australia, and quite a few in the big cities, recycle their laundry water by applying it to their lawns and gardens. The problem is that most laundry powders contain a high proportion of salt which can kill or damage plants.

When asked what was being done about this problem, Philip Pentland, Eureka!’s formulation director, explained, “at Eureka! we became disappointed that no-one was prepared to tackle this problem. Living in an arid country we should be encouraging people to recycle and reduce water wastage.  We mightn’t be in the laundry industry but we are experts at solving problems. So if no one else will tackle the problem then we thought that we should”.

So the Eureka! development team decided to take on the challenge. The ideal solution was considered to be a laundry powder that had excellent cleaning power, could be used to water the garden and was also a fertiliser. It seemed like a lot to ask for!

“The result is a novel product we call ‘Wash and Grow’,” said Mr Pentland.  “A laundry product that contains the most important plant nutrients; nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, has first class cleaning capability but doesn’t contain damaging salts such as sodium chloride.  It’s such a novel idea that we patented it! Being a high nutrient powder this product is not suited for use in sewage systems but is a perfect application to lawns and gardens”.

I have used it on my own lawn during the dry summer months and watched the grass become green, healthy and vigorous, with the added bonus that I save on water too!”

Eureka!  is now starting to look for distributors who have the capacity to sell this unique, patented product for use in rural, regional, urban fringe and possibly even metropolitan markets.

For further information please contact Anthony Flynn

Written By: Anthony Flynn
© 2014 Eureka! AgResearch Pty Ltd