Laundry is a $100 billion business. It can also be a real time suck, what with all the washing, drying, and folding. Detergent company Tide has found great success with its Pods that let you pop detergent right into a washing machine without having to measure and pour liquid or powder. Now, the next evolution is an exhaustively engineered single-use detergent called Tide Evo Tiles—a dry, fibery, single-use tile that can dissolve in cold water. It looks a lot less tasty than the bright, colorful Tide Pods, so hopefully, fewer people will try to eat this one.

Tide Evo Tiles have been in product development for over a decade. After spending a year in test markets, Tide and its parent company, Procter & Gamble, announced last week that Evo Tiles are now rolling out more broadly across the US. Prices range from $5 to $20 per box, depending on the retailer, with the price roughly 50 cents per tile.

“This is really a feat of engineering,” says Marcello Puddu, senior director of research and development at Tide. “There is a lot of very complicated engineering and formulation work that has gone to create that one single sleek tile that looks relatively simple.”

The primary hope for Tide Evo is simplicity. Single-use detergent pods are lauded for being more accessible to people who may struggle with the motor skills required to pour liquid soap or powders. Evo Tiles have a small ridge around the edges that makes them easier to pull out of the box. Deploying them is easy—just plop them (one tile for regular loads, two for heavy) into the washer as close to where the water comes out as possible, then toss the fabrics on top.

After the tile breaks apart, the ingredients work together to create a very high pH level in the water that cleans the fabrics. (Because of the high pH, Tide Evo does not use lipase, an enzyme that breaks down stains and is a popular ingredient in other detergents.)

Evo Tiles look like white, diamond-shaped Uncrustables. Instead of a Tide Pod’s colorful liquid pouches, these tiles are made of dry layers of interwoven detergent fibers—about 10,000 of them, which Tide says is enough to stretch for 15 miles, if you were inclined to do such a thing. The result is a looping, webbed lattice of tiny fibers, woven together into six layers that stay in place while on the shelf but break down quickly when they get wet, allowing separate releases of stain and odor fighters, brighteners, and fresheners.

“The structure of an assembled product allows us to do that, because we can separate things that don’t like to be together,” Puddu says. “We can put an enzyme between two layers so the two don’t attack each other. You can’t really do that as easily in other matrices.”

The goal is to combine the benefits of Tide Pods and laundry sheets and make something that packs in enough detergent to sufficiently clean a load of wash while also being lightweight and able to dissolve quickly. And, as Tide is eager to point out, it also makes things more eco-friendly.

Tide Evo tiles are specifically designed to dissolve in cold water, the idea being that washing fabrics without having to heat up water helps save energy. Packaging is also part of Tide’s ecological efforts. Unlike the plastic boxes Pods tend to come in, Tide Evo tiles are packaged in a recyclable cardboard box that is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

Still, Tide Evo does use polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) plastics to help the fibrous structure hold together. These are the same kind of plastics used to form the casing around Tide Pods. PVA plastics have been the subject of much debate about whether the polymers used in detergent casing can create microplastics when dissolved. They likely do not, but the products are still created within the broader plastics ecosystem and can lead to clogging of waterways if not treated properly.

When asked about how much PVA was in Evo Tiles compared to Pods, a Tide representative said the company doesn’t disclose specific ingredient levels in products but acknowledged that “PVA plays an important role in both detergent forms.”

“With Tide Evo, PVA is a key component of the unique fiber-detergent tile and layer structure, helping it to form and quickly dissolve in water,” the representative said via email. “The PVA helps create Tide Evo’s functional fibers, which enhance the cleaning performance. Beyond laundry, water-soluble PVA is also used in food and medical products, demonstrating its safety and adaptability.”

Tide Pods have been at the forefront of efforts like the 2024 proposal to ban detergent packages in New York. Clearly, there is a nonzero chance lawmakers could one day ban pods entirely—one that Tide might be eager to offset.

Patrick Memoli, a contract chemist who works on various consumer products and specializes in detergents, says that while Tide’s engineering is laudable, Evo Tiles minimize the focus on plastics in a single-use detergent tile. Even if the company isn’t sharing whether there’s less PVA in Tiles, Tide is likely using its eco-oriented efforts to diversify product lines and hedge its bets against the possibility of pods being outlawed one day.

“It’s smart at a corporate level,” Memoli says. “I don’t think that it’s going to end up being the most popular form of detergent. It’s not going to overtake pods unless legislation limits the sales of pods or restricts that product form in any way.”

Evo Tiles might not be for everyone. You can find plenty of online complaints about clumping with the Evo Tiles from folks who have tested it during the pilot program, where the detergent fails to dissolve all the way and leaves splotches of goop behind. Puddu chalks this up to user error: “It could be the Evo was not put in directly before the clothes, or because there was no water in the machine. Maybe the machine was overstuffed. That’s something that happens quite a bit.” Aside from the new format, the consumer benefits of Evo Tiles work just about the same as existing pods or sheets.

“They seem very easy to use for a consumer,” says David Butzer, who leads a chemical consulting company called Formulating and Compliance Solutions. “They’re very lightweight, good for traveling. But I fail to see what this achieves that a pod can’t already.”