Henkel is stepping up its efforts to promote sustainable plastic packaging. The Düsseldorf-based company recently presented special recyclable plastic packaging made from black plastic. The consumer goods group is also planning to offer packaging made from 100 per cent recycled plastic for its detergents, cleaning agents and personal care products in the near future.
The initiative for more Packaging, which are made from recycled plastic, is linked to Henkel's cooperation with the „Plastic Bank“. This is an initiative that Plastic waste from the oceans and utilise the recyclable material. This project is combined with a social component.
The Plastic Bank encourages collectors in the world's poorest countries, where there is also a particularly large amount of plastic waste in the Oceans The aim is to collect rubbish from the coasts and oceans. In return, the active participants receive money, goods or services for the collected recyclables.
Local businesses can also open mini-markets for the needy with the support of the bank, where Old plastic is accepted as currency. The Plastic Bank in turn processes the collected plastics and sells them on the global market as „social plastic“ at a premium. In this way, new development projects are financed.
Three plastic collection centres opened in Haiti
Handle has been working with the organisation, which was founded in Canada in 2013, since 2017. With the support of the chemical company, three further Plastic collection centres opened in Haiti.
„A total of around 200 tonnes of collected social plastic will be processed for Henkel in 2019 - so this plastic will not end up in the sea.“
Prof Dr Thomas Müller-Kirschbaum, Co-Chairman of Henkel's Sustainability Council and Head of Research & Development Laundry & Home Care
In the meantime, pilot tests with Social Plastic have been running in the company. These have now been successfully completed. The first regular product packaging made from social plastic will soon be on shop shelves. For the summer, Henkel has announced that all PET bottle body the Pro Nature-The aim is to produce Biff, Pril and Sidolin brand detergents and the bottle bodies of Vernel Fresh Control fabric softener from 100 per cent recycled plastic. 25 per cent of the raw materials are said to be social plastic.
The product area „Beauty Care“ is also planning two special editions with packaging made from used plastic, half of which is made from social plastic. This concerns the Nature Box „Meeres Glück“ and Fa „Meeres Liebe“ products.
All packaging should be more recyclable by 2025
Not only the use of Recycled plastic for its own products. The aim is to increase the proportion of recycled plastic for consumer product packaging in Europe to 35 per cent by 2025. The Recyclability of our own packaging is to be improved. By 2025, all packaging except for adhesives should be recyclable, reusable or compostable.
This project has already been successfully implemented for the black plastic bottles for Bref products. In cooperation with the masterbatch producer Ampacet Henkel developed a new packaging material with an alternative black colourant. This has been used for the black bottles of Bref toilet cleaner since May. According to the Düsseldorf-based company, the solution found is already being implemented for other Henkel products.
Black dyes are not correctly recognised in recycling plants
Black plastic packaging represents a major challenge for Recycling industry has presented a particular challenge to date. The reason for this lies in the colourants used to date. Recycling plants work with the Near-infrared technology (NIR) to identify the packaging to be recycled. The optical sensors use the reflection of light to detect the material and sort it accordingly. However, due to their colour, black plastic packaging cannot be correctly identified and sorted by these optical sensors.
The development work has already been recognised. The „REC-NIR-BLACK masterbatch“ from Ampacet was honoured at the Plastics Recycling Awards Europe 2019 was honoured as „Product Technology Innovation of the Year“ in April.
[infotext icon]You can find more information on Henkel's activities for more sustainable product packaging at this page.
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