Are Koh sheet and tablet products free from plastic?Updated 9 days ago
TL;DR: Not in the strict sense, and we would rather say so. The dissolvable film used with our Dishwashing Tabs, Loo Cleaner Tabs and Sensitive Laundry Sheets is polyvinyl alcohol, usually written PVA or PVOH. It is a synthetic polymer, so describing these products as plastic-free would be misleading. What it does do is dissolve completely in water during the wash rather than persisting as a solid fragment, and independent peer-reviewed testing found a representative detergent-grade PVOH was extensively biodegraded during wastewater treatment.
✓ It dissolves, it does not shed
The film goes into solution in water during the wash. It is not a conventional plastic film that stays solid and breaks into fragments.
✓ But it is still a polymer
Polyvinyl alcohol is synthetic. That is why we say water-soluble rather than plastic-free, and why this page is longer than one word.
Are Koh sheet and tablet products free from plastic?
✓ The honest answer
The film is a cold water-soluble polyvinyl alcohol film, PVOH, specifically MonoSol AF L711. It is a synthetic polymer, so we do not describe these products as plastic-free. Unlike a conventional plastic film it dissolves completely in water during the wash rather than persisting as a solid fragment. Dissolving is not the same as breaking down, so what happens after that depends on the wastewater treatment it reaches.
What the tab and sheet format genuinely does remove is the rigid plastic bottle, trigger and cap that a liquid equivalent would need, and most of the water being shipped with it.
What is polyvinyl alcohol, and why use it?
✓ Cold water-soluble
The grade used is MonoSol AF L711, a cold water-soluble film, so it dissolves on a cold cycle as well as a warm one.
✓ You never touch the contents
The dose stays sealed until it hits the water. That keeps dosing consistent and keeps the cleaning agent off your hands.
Polyvinyl alcohol is used well beyond cleaning products, including in food packaging, textiles and pharmaceuticals.
Does the film actually break down?
✓ What the testing found, and under what conditions
Independent peer-reviewed testing using an OECD 303A wastewater-treatment simulation found a representative detergent-film grade of polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH 18-88) was extensively biodegraded during treatment, averaging around 97 per cent removal in the plateau phase. The study also reported minimal sorption to sludge, so the small remainder passed out in effluent rather than accumulating in solids.
That is a result for a wastewater treatment plant with an established microbial population, which is where a household drain normally leads in the UK.
⚠ What that result does not mean
It is not a home-compostable claim, a garden-soil claim, a septic-system claim or a marine claim, and we are not making one. Biodegradation of polyvinyl alcohol depends on the conditions it reaches and the micro-organisms present, so a figure from a treatment-plant simulation should not be read as a figure for anywhere else.
It also is not a plastic-free claim. Dissolving removes the fragment, not the polymer.
Conditions matter
Which products use it, and are they certified?
Pre-dosed laundry sheets. This one has not been assessed under the GECA scheme.
Not GECA certifiedCertification is granted product by product, so it does not carry across from one of these to another. We are not going to call the group certified when one of them is not.
Pre-dosed tabs in a cold water-soluble film, so no measuring and no bottle.
What the Australian ecolabel assesses, and exactly which Koh UK products hold it.
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Last reviewed: August 2026 · Koh UK