Unilever transitions global toothpaste portfolio to certified-recyclable tubes by 2025

19 May 2021 --- Unilever is transitioning its entire global toothpaste portfolio to recyclable tubes by 2025, starting with France and India, its biggest oral care markets. 

The multinational consumer goods giant’s oral care brands include Signal, Pepsodent and Closeup.

After four years of development, the recyclable tubes will be available later this year in France with the company’s leading oral care brand Signal.

The new tubes will roll out across Signal’s most extensive range – Integral 8 – representing over a third (35 percent) of Unilever’s toothpaste portfolio in the country.

Traditionally, most toothpaste tubes are made from plastic and aluminum, which gives the packaging flexibility but also makes it difficult to recycle.

Instead of aluminum, the new tubes will use a material made mainly of High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE), one of the most widely recyclable plastics globally.

The tube will also be the thinnest plastic material available on the toothpaste market at 220-microns, reducing the amount of plastic needed for each tube.

“This innovation required re-evaluating every stage of the production process, including meeting strict formulation requirements in taste and flavor, ensuring the tubes are resilient and readily shaped, and working with our suppliers and factories to manufacture the tubes with the new material,” a Unilever spokesperson tells PackagingInsights.

“When it comes to making oral care sustainable, it has been challenging to develop a product that is recyclable without adding extra plastic to the tube,” adds Alan Conner, VP Europe, EPL (formerly Essel Propack).Instead of aluminum, the tubes use a material made mainly of HDPE, a widely recyclable plastic.

Approved for recycling
RecyClass has approved the design for recyclability in Europe while laboratories have also certified the recyclability in Asia and North America.

Meeting these rigorous requirements means the new tubes can be recycled within standard HDPE recycling streams.

“We have worked with recycling partners to ensure the tubes can be recycled,” the spokesperson says. “For example, collaborating on the sorting processes (ensuring that their systems recognize the tubes as recyclable) and making sure they have the correct framework in place to recycle the tubes.

“For example, in France, the recycling body Citeo will be collecting the tubes along with other plastics, which will then be sorted for recycling.”

In France, consumers can put the new tubes in their home recycling bin for collection and recycling.

“To ensure the tubes are recycled, we will be launching a campaign to inform and educate consumers about the new tubes with the aim of changing habits, in addition to providing on-pack guidance to prompt people into throwing the tubes into their recycling bins,” the spokesperson adds.

Knowledge sharing
Unilever has pledged to share the tube innovation with other companies to encourage wider industry change.

Unilever’s oral care brands partnered with multiple global packaging manufacturers, including EPL, Amcor, Huhtamaki and Dai Nippon Indonesia (DNPI), during the tube development phase.

Brands including Signal plan to introduce more post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic into their recyclable tubes by 2022 in France and other European markets, reducing the use of virgin plastic and supporting the move toward a circular economy.

More broadly, the innovation contributes to Unilever’s commitment to ensure 100 percent of its plastic packaging is reusable, recyclable or compostable, and collect and process more plastic packaging than it sells.

“Plastic pollution is undoubtedly one of the biggest environmental challenges of our time. We can see its impact on our planet every day, including the billions of toothpaste tubes dumped into landfills every year,” notes Samir Singh, EVP, global skin cleansing and oral care at Unilever.

“Recyclable tubes mark a key milestone in our packaging journey and, more significantly, they have the potential to transform the whole oral care industry,” adds Babu Cherian, R&D oral care packaging director at Unilever.

PackagingInsights recently sat down with Jun Wang, packaging innovation and global design at Colgate-Palmolive Company Technology Center, to discuss his company’s eco-friendly toothpaste tube innovation.

By Joshua Poole