Innovation Zone Snapshot – Recyclable paper bottle would be beauty industry first

ThePackHub Innovation Zone Snapshot

More information on our Innovation Zone packaging database – https://www.thepackhub.com/the-innovation-zone/

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Paul Jenkins of ThePackHub will be opening day one of the Packaging Innovations stage at 10:30am.

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#1 Recyclable paper bottle would be beauty industry first

New York-based global beauty and cosmetics company Estée Lauder has joined the Pulpex partner consortium. Pulpex, along with early partners, Pilot Lite Group and Diageo, have created a paper bottle using wood pulp. Manufactured from pulp from FSC-certified (Forest Stewardship Council) renewable feedstock from responsibly managed forests, they are aiming for the bottle to be recyclable in standard waste paper streams. Estée Lauder are the first leading beauty brand to join the consortium. They intend to explore opportunities for their own brands utilising the same bottle-making technology. Estée Lauder recently committed to reducing the amount of fossil-based plastic packaging in their products to 50% or less by the end of 2030, They also set the goal of achieving 100% FSC-certified forest-based fibre cartons, and ensuring over 75% of its packaging is recyclable, refillable, reusable, recycled, or recoverable by 2025. Their brands include Estée Lauder, Clinique, DKNY, and Michael Kors.

#2 Insulative e-commerce paper packaging is fully recyclable

Multinational technology and e-commerce company Amazon has launched packaging for their Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods online grocery deliveries which is fully recyclable, while still maintaining insulation and other protective properties. The pack was trialled and piloted several times in multiple US cities to ensure the positive properties of the pack were working to their full extent. The packs are made from recycled paper and are easily recyclable in standard US waste streams. The change will reportedly save over three hundred tonnes of plastic film, over 1,400 tonnes of cotton fibre and over 6500 tonnes of non-recyclable mixed plastic every year. Amazon’s new recyclable grocery packaging fits perfectly in line with the organisation’s sustainable objective to be entirely carbon neutral by 2040.

More info in The Innovation Zone.

#3 Method to prevent small plastics slipping out of recycling process developed

PET (polyethylene terephthalate) is considered an easily and infinitely recyclable material with infrastructure in place to recycle the material in many markets around the world. However, the process is not perfect and some small PET bottles can slip through the sorting process in recycling facilities, and so end up unrecycled. To tackle this issue,  Global leading packaging company Amcor have developed a method to recycle small PET bottles. The container design will allow for spirit bottles 50ml in size to be recycled. The process is a straightforward one and works by causing the bottles to increase in width when squashed, causing them to be too large to escape the sorting facility.

More info in The Innovation Zone.

#4 Own label refillable cleaning spray bottles launched

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