PCR is the key

Glass, plastics, aluminium – which materials are most popular in the cosmetics containers market and why?

This strongly depends on the brand type, the distribution, and the category. However, right now we see a strong demand for PET packaging because of its positive attributes like high compatibility, good recyclability, and its availability in PCR (post-consumer-recycling material). Especially for sanitizer products the market has exploded recently and PET protects ethanol very well and communicates through its visual cues such as the high-gloss surface and the transparency product attributes such as efficiency, cleanliness, and hygiene.

We see all materials and packaging that offer a sustainable advantage gaining in popularity. Being recyclable or being made of post-consumer-recycling material are both strong sustainable advantages. The strong demand for PCR plastics currently leads to limited availability and fluctuating grades, so converters and brands struggle with instable supply, changing prices and deviations in quality and colours.

For many years, the company has put already a strong focus on sustainability. Now, 73% of our standard molds can be used to manufacture packagings of PCR-materials. Looking at jars, especially in the masstige and mass segment, we see a strong shift from plastic to glass. Here, we will be introducing post-consumer- recycled glass jars in our portfolio within the next few months.

Where is the journey going with the development or improvement of materials?

There is a strong need and trend in the availability of recycling materials! Today, the demand for high quality PCR materials exceeds the supply, which therefore requires increasing investment into recycling technologies and capacities to boost the supply of high-quality PCR for HDPE, PET and PP.

Unfortunately, most recycling materials still lack the European Food Approval certificate and do not offer the same technical attributes as virgin materials. Since this is still a big challenge, all involved stakeholders need to work on solutions: European legislation, recycling companies, converters, and brands. Since 2018, the Forum Rezyklat is focusing all its efforts to resolve this issue, substituting the amount of virgin material by PCR plastics and therefore increasing the overall recycling rate for a more sustainable future.

What are the latest dispensing techniques?

Looking from the perspective of hygiene products and sustainability, we see good value in all dispensing systems that offer product protection, a hygienic handling and dosing functionality for alcoholic products, as well as durability. Since sanitizers are used multiple times throughout the day, the lifecycle of one bottle is rather short. All pumps which are durable and which can be reused multiple cycles offer great value to the consumer and the environment. There are many consumers who buy one to two litre-sized sanitizing products and refill their small “on-the-go” packages at home! This happens more and more in drugstores, where they fill the required “on-the-go” size from a big pack which they keep behind the counter.

Our 520 S pump with a long nozzle offers great priming functionality, dispensing product in 3 ml doses. Because it is very durable, the pump can be reused many times, even with alcoholic products. A 90-degree nozzle adapter enables super precise dosing.

What are the major challenges in the recyclability of cosmetic containers?

Recyclability is a very hot topic and since this subject is so complex, there is still a lot of confusion and uncertainty. Obviously, recyclability depends strongly on the type of container used but, generally speaking, to ensure that packagings remain recyclable, brand owners need to pay attention to the following aspects:

• Mono-materials: compounds cannot be recycled so the packaging should be of a single material.Dark colours: most of the carbon black or other dark colours cannot be detected by the infrared sensors in the recycling process and therefore cannot be separated.
• Common materials: only for commonly used materials like PE, PET, PP, etc. does a recycling stream exist. All niche materials should be avoided.
• Decorations: heavy decorations like metallization or full body sleeves limit the recyclability because they can bias the detection mechanism which leads to the last exit, the energetic recovery.

There are certainly many more aspects to consider, and we have developed our own methodology throughout the last few years, where we help our customers to screen and analyse their portfolios and work with them intensively before starting new design and development projects. This allows our team of designers, engineers and molding expert build a holistic and sustainable taskforce.