Public consultation on Cleaning products
5 September – 4 November, 2025
During the consultation period, Nordic Ecolabelling gives you the opportunity to comment on our proposal for new criteria for Cleaning products.
Nordic Ecolabelling is revising the requirements for 026 Cleaning products. The criteria apply to products for consumers and/or professionals designed to clean hard surfaces, indoor and outdoor, and textile flooring. The products can be in the form of concentrated products, ready-to-use (RTU) products, and mix-it-yourself RTU/refill products. You are welcome to respond to the proposal no later than November 4, 2025.
Consultation documents
How can response be sent in?
We prefer to receiving your response via this form: RESPONSE FORM. You can give your response in English or your Nordic language.
A compilation of the consultation responses, with answers from Nordic Ecolabelling and the names of the responding organisations, will be published on the Nordic Swan Ecolabel web page.
Most important issues
Nordic Ecolabelling welcomes feedback on the entire revised criteria including the following significant changes:
- The product group encompasses new product types including kitchen equipment cleaners (milk frothers, ice cream makers, dishwasher cleaners), laundry machine cleaners, and products for outdoor surface cleaning. The product subcategories for requirements are redefined. The product format “water-soluble sheets” is also included. (Product Group Definition)
- Stricter calculation limits for ecotoxicity and biodegradability (CDV, aNBO, anNBO, and long-term environmental effects requirements). Furthermore, surfactants are no longer exempt in the calculation for long-term environmental effects. The product subcategories related to these requirements have also been changed. (requirements O12,O13,O14)
- Updates to micro-organism requirement including new requirements for risk assessment and whole gene sequence analysis. Seeking input on opening the possibility to license cleaning products that contain micro-organisms for the consumer market. (requirement O11)
- User test now requires that the performance tests be conducted by ten users who are professional cleaning personnel. (requirement O16)
- Packaging label requirements no longer allow paper labels on plastic packaging to improve recyclabilty. (requirement O18)
Furthermore, we would appreciate your thoughts on whether to continue licensing RTU products for professionals (except WC-cleaners). Are these products necessary?
Finally, are there aspects of the criteria that are obstacles for super-concentrated products to be licensed (for example, due to O2 hazard classification of the product or O20 packaging weight-utility ratio)?
For more information about the consultation process in general, read here.
For specific questions regarding the consultation, please contact product manager Sheri Eklund, sheri.eklund@svanen.se or one of the national product specialist:
Denmark: Trine Pedersen, tpe@ecolabel.dk
Finland: Mari Åkerberg, mari.akerberg@ecolabel.fi
Norway: Tove Bræin, tb@svanemerket.no
Sweden: Hedvig Bergqvist, hedvig.bergqvist@svanen.se
Please note that all consultation responses must be submitted via the form. Kindly do not send any responses to the product manager or product specialists.