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5 Dec 2023
Emma Grace Bailey
While the design is ideal for consumer convenience and the protection of the product within, the composite nature of the packaging makes it almost impossible to recycle. Even if it is recycled the materials will be damaged during separation and downcycled into pellets of far less value. More often than not the packaging will head straight to landfill.
This design practice has permeated many industries, from crisp packets and sandwich boxes, to lipstick containers and fragrance bottles, meaning many valuable resources are being lost after just one use. Luckily, a new focus is emerging in the form of monomaterial packaging - using just one type of material for the entire pack, allowing it to be more easily recovered and reused.
Many brands are opting for plastic in their transition to monomateriality - a choice that doesn't overcome plastic's low recycling rate - but others are looking to more traditional materials that have scaled, efficient, and global systems of capture, reuse, and recycling. Discover five brands that are committed to making one material fit all.
of consumers would pay more for a product if it came in recyclable packaging (Innova Market Insights)
Only 7% of global consumers perceive paper-based packaging as unsustainable (Innova Market Insights)
of Europeans consider metal packaging to be a more sustainable choice than plastic (Eviosys)
300 million plastic toothpaste tubes are sent to landfill every year in the UK, unable to be recycled even if they were sent to a facility. Founded by dentists, Paist is on a mission to reduce this waste with its range of toothpastes packaged in Aluminium tubes with zinc alloy caps. The UK's aluminium recycling rate hit a record 68% in 2021, with 88% of the waste collected recycled within the UK and EU.
Free from SLS, animal products, preservatives, and artificial flavours, Paist's range of three toothpastes is designed to make natural, sustainable oral care more accessible, offering paste over tablets or powder that have become ubiquitous with the market.
Key Takeaway: consumers like what they know, so when designing mono-material packaging, stick as close as possible to the shape, experience, and visual cues of the item you're improving upon to help your customer adopt at scale.
Aluminium bottles have historically been a niche market, but advances in technology are converging with new customer expectations to make them an increasingly relevant option for designers. Enter Ball's Alumi-Tek Bottle, monomaterial, lightweight, durable, and easily recyclable kerbside from cap to bottle. Available in two sizes - 12 ounces and 16 ounces - the Alumi-Tek bottle is particularly well suited to the craft beer segment and premium carbonated beverages.
While the bottle itself is entirely aluminium, it is coated internally with a thin layer of plastic, while decorative direct-to-bottle printing negates the need for labels but requires additional coatings too. The company states that all coatings are incinerated in the smelting process when the bottle is recycled and don't contaminate the recyclate.
Key Takeaway: even though the coatings don't impact the recycling efficiency of the design, it's imperative that brands are transparent with consumers about their use and environmental impact. Coatings are still plastic, so while the use of aluminium is applauded, don't claim 100% aluminium and risk a claim violation.
Plastic blister packs are used across industries. From food to gift packaging, plastic windows that allow consumers to see the product before purchasing have become a go-to selling strategy. But why use them for non-perishable FMCGs where seeing the product tells a consumer nothing more than an image could?
Mitsubishi Uniball teamed up with packaging provider FACER to remove the plastic blister from its pen packs for this exact reason. The new pack retains many of its packaging efficiencies, being heat sealable and produced using existing machinery, but it's made from two-sided solid bleach paperboard that's formed into a cut-and-creased tray. The standard blister backing is the front of the pack, featuring an image of the pens inside.
Key Takeaway: what works for one industry or product isn't necessarily essential for another. Being able to see products such as pens isn't essential for customer buy-in - we all know what pens look like, and they don't degrade with age. Consider what other items are being housed behind plastic windows when a picture would suffice.
Plastic allows us to protect things, both products from contamination and people from products. Global manufacturer of child-resistant packaging Dymapak has launched the Squeeze and Turn Tin, a 100% Steel tin that's airtight, easily kerbside recyclable, and designed with child resistant closures - all without plastic.
Available in multiple sizes, and suitable for edibles, tea, coffee, lotions, and topicals, the tin features buttons on the side of the lid to unlock it from the base. It is said to offer superior barrier protection against light, oxygen, and moisture compared to plastic counterparts. The lid can also be bought separately from the base to fit a Glass jar or other recyclable container.
Key Takeaway: it's not always necessary to replace the entirety of a pack to improve upon it. Consider adapting just one part first - the label, the secondary box, the lid or the base. Little by little the design will transform.
Millions of lipsticks are sold every year, with estimations nearing one billion. Each of those lipsticks is encased in a complex mechanism of metal and plastic parts, which are impossible to separate. Global packaging provider HCP Packaging has removed the plastic to create a 100% aluminium pack that can be easily recycled at the end of its life.
Customisable and measuring 65 millimetres in height, the casing is made from aluminium sourced from China and is said to be lightweight but also resistant and durable enough to withstand the consumer lifecycle. The design was developed as part of the company's expansion into sustainable materials in 2020 and is available at scale today.
Key Takeaway: when global suppliers start moving into mono-material solutions, the opportunities for brands to do the same multiply tenfold. HCP's far-reaching presence makes the adoption of this product simple and affordable.
Packaging design is complicated, with many products needing complex solutions to remain viable throughout the supply chain. This is made easier with a mix of materials. Start your mono-material journey by focusing on one product first, learn from the result and expand.
Your pack doesn't need to be different to your competitors'. Take the beer industry for example. Beer cans come in standard shapes and sizes, differentiated purely via labels, yet the beer industry thrives. This mass adoption of monomaterial design levels the playing field and makes sustainable packaging more accessible.
As demonstrated here, metals such as aluminium and steel are ideally suited to monomaterial packaging. Offering lightweight yet durable properties, as well as high global recycling rates, metals can be both affordable for brands and consumers, while elevating the packaging experience.