![[logo] US EPA](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081009210627im_/http://www.epa.gov/epafiles/images/logo_epaseal.gif){kind=logo}
Formulator Program
Distinguishing and Labelling Safer Chemical Products
About This Project | Findings & Accomplishments | Safer Detergents Stewardship Initiative | Publications | Partners & Recognized Products | DfE Screens
Safer Products
Safer Detergent Stewardship Initiative
Apply for Recognition
(8 pp, 183K, About PDF)
by June 20, 2008.
Each year, formulators blend billions of pounds of chemical ingredients to create a wide variety of products used by businesses, institutions, households, and others. Through manufacture and use, virtually everyone comes in contact with the chemicals in these products, which are ultimately released to the environment—as effluents to water, off-gases to air, and solid wastes to land.
By forming partnerships with the DfE Program, formulators can take part in an important national effort to improve the human health and environmental profile of chemical-based products, which will benefit the quality of aquatic life and the environment, the biodegradability of waste streams, and human health and safety.
The basis for a DfE partnership rests on the selection of the safest possible ingredients that permit the formulation of high-performing, cost-effective products. DfE can provide formulators with information on chemical characteristics and toxicities of raw materials and additives, safer substitutes for chemicals of concern, and innovative new chemistries. A DfE release on considerations for partnership (PDF) (10 pp, 373K) describes the program's unique approach to product review and formulation improvement, with a focus on cleaning products. DfE Formulator partners enjoy Agency recognition, including the use of the DfE label on products with improved formulations.
To share the DfE thinking on safer formulations with the widest possible audience and to make forming partnerships easier, DfE sponsored CleanGredients®, a database of safer cleaning product ingredients. Organized by product component class (e.g., surfactants, solvents, etc.), CleanGredients™ creates a green marketplace where formulators can select functionally appropriate ingredients that pass the DfE Screen for safer chemicals.
The redesign of chemical products offers important opportunities to:
- Remove polluting chemicals from formulations before they can enter the workplace, home, or environment.
- Advance energy and water efficiency, resource conservation, and innovative technologies.
- Qualify for environmentally preferred product status, increasingly sought by government, retailer and consumer purchasers.
For more information, contact DfE.