Consumer giant Procter & Gamble is starting the switch to recyclable tubes for its Crest, Oral-B and Blend-a-med toothpaste brands. The change is being rolled out this month with a full conversion of its inventory across Europe and the US by 2025.
P&G reached an agreement with Albéa to start using their proprietary Greenleaf Generation 2 HDPE tube technology. The transition begins this month, January 2021.
“Toothpaste tubes are used by millions of consumers every day; however, its multi-material construction poses a challenge for recycling facilities around the globe. The solution to this is the HDPE – High-Density Polyethylene – tube, which provides the same product protection as current tubes, and which has been certified by North American and European recycling bodies to be compatible with existing recycling technologies. These HDPE tubes can be recycled where collection programs exist,” explained P&G.
Procter & Gamble is in discussions with several HDPE tube suppliers and has already reached an agreement with Albéa to start using its tube technology. Albéa’s Greenleaf tubes are the first to be recognized as recyclable by the APR (Association of Plastic Recyclers) in North America and by RecyClass and SUEZ.circpack in Europe. “These certifications confirm that the tubes can be recycled within the existing HDPE bottles recycling streams,” said Albéa.
Colgate-Palmolive launched its first HDPE toothpaste tube last year.
Virginie Helias, P&G’s Chief Sustainability Officer said “Our leading oral care brands touch millions of people around the world. This new packaging innovation will contribute to making the toothpaste tubes recyclable at scale in existing recycling streams, hence reducing our footprint and striving for circular solutions. It’s no longer about if or what we can do, but how quickly we can do it.”