Essel Propack Ltd, an Indian multinational manufacturer of laminated plastic tubes, announced an innovative breakthrough in the field of recyclable tubes. Essel Propack's Platina and Green Maple Leaf(GML®) laminate tubes for the oral care, cosmetics, pharmaceutical and other OTC industries enable packaging to be recycled, which is a significant step towards greater sustainability.
The two unique innovations are certified by the American APR (Association of Plastic Recyclers) so that the tubes can be recycled in the HDPE material stream. This is a new breakthrough in the packaging market and is essential for brands looking to switch to sustainable, recyclable packaging formats.
Complex challenges
The R&D team at Essel's innovation centre in Maharashtra, India, worked intensively on various design and layering options to create a Recyclable HDPE structure to achieve. The team was faced with an extremely complex innovation task, as the primary objective was to keep the usability of the tube intact and also to maintain the product freshness for the period stated on the product. Shelf life and at the same time, depending on the production line, further requirements for quality and machinability must be taken into account.
Platina & GML are used worldwide for shampoo bottles and similar products and are sold under the Code 2 falling HDPE base so that the tubes are firm and robust, have all the necessary barrier properties and retain their desired shape for the entire duration of use.
Recyclable solutions
The innovation comes at a time when consumer goods suppliers are looking for recyclable solutions and major brands have announced that they will continue to offer recyclable solutions until 2022 or 2025 to a recyclable format to switch. Essel will proactively offer the innovation to its partners as a responsible tube supplier to global consumer brands to help them achieve their sustainability goals and protect our environment.
„We are very excited as this opens the door to many more innovations in the near future and we will continue to proactively reach out to each customer to convert to this packaging format. We will work with each and every one of them to give them the technical expertise and the increased economies of scale that make this an easy transition for any brand.”
Business Leadership Team, Essel Propack
Following this, Essel will work closely with partners to streamline the value chain of tube use and disposal, as well as the reusability of their contents in various product streams.
The company will actively promote this to its partners and work with various municipalities and local authorities, as well as with raw material users whose recycled tube material is suitable for use in other raw material streams.
[infotext icon]Other notable Essel Propack projects on the subject of sustainability include the „Project Liberty” - an important initiative to promote environmental sustainability. Using a proprietary technology, this enables the Separation of aluminium and polymers into two different, recyclable material streams without the use of chemicals or heat. After separation, the aluminium and polymer fragments obtained from ABL tubes can be safely recycled.The company is also reducing the need for new raw materials by using Etain®. With these tubes 25% already recycled material „post consumer recycled“ (PCR)[/infotext].
Source: Essel Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG
