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15 Dec 2023
Also included is a carton with built-in bacteria detection, and a much-needed redesign of the toilet roll. Read on to discover our top 10 packs from the year.
Fashion brand Ecoalf launched its waterless wellness collection. Comprising six products, including soap, shampoo, moisturiser, deodorant, lip balm, and spf 30, the range is entirely powdered or solid in format to remove water from the formulation process. Products come with reusable, refillable, Aluminium cases, with refills delivered in Paper or bioplastic pouches. Water has been replaced by waxes and starches as carriers for active ingredients, as well as delivering sebum-regulating and moisturising properties.
French jewellery brand Boucheron redesigned its collection of jewellery boxes. Taking two years to create, the new collection of cases are made from just two materials - Aluminium and Wool felt - a distinct reduction in material use compared to the original box’s eleven. Both materials were chosen for their natural origin and high recyclability rates, while the Responsible Wool Standard certified felt requires no glueing or stitching. The brand also redesigned the closure, removing the hinge mechanism associated with jewellery boxes and simplifying the case-opening system so users lift the lid off the base to reveal the jewels inside.
Mælk is a concept product from Taboo Branding designed to cut down on milk waste. The carton design uses smart technology to visually alert the consumer that the milk has gone bad. Over the course of four days, an image of a bottle slowly appears on the outside of the carton. Once fully revealed, the milk is past its best. At this stage, the corner of the carton can be opened, releasing a bacterial powder into the remaining milk that, when left overnight, transforms the milk into drinkable kefir.
One Good Thing from the UK packages its pocket-sized, cold-pressed raw snack bars in edible packaging. Made almost entirely from beeswax, mixed with natural ingredients, the packaging protects the bar while in transit, but can be eaten alongside its contents for a waste-free snacking experience. Available in boxes of six or 12, and with seven flavours to choose from including Apple and Blackcurrant and Lemon Drizzle, the bars feature an edible rice paper label and can be washed before eating, without going soggy.
GaeaStar from Berlin replaces single-use plastic cups and on-the-go food packaging with its clay-based alternatives. Inspired by the Indian tradition of Kulhars - disposable terracotta cups that have been used to sell Indian Chai tea for around 5,000 years - the products are made using additive manufacturing, otherwise known as 3D printing. Made from just clay, water and salt, the products can be crushed after use and added to soil, going back to nature harmlessly. The company offers a Dry & Semisolid Range of bowls for salads, ice cream and tapas, and a Liquid Range, cups designed for hot and cold beverages.
Seaweed pioneer Notpla teamed up with biotech cleaning solutions supplier Mack to announce an industry-first laundry detergent sachet made from Notpla Film. Mack is phasing out the PVA casing used for its BioPods, replacing it with Notpla’s water-soluble seaweed film. The laundry pods dissolve harmlessly in water, leaving no microplastics behind. Notpla Film is a plant-based flexible packaging alternative designed to replace plastic and bioplastic films.
French champagne house Maison Perrier-Jouët unveiled its Perrier-Jouët Belle Epoque Cocoon, a gift box made with Paper pulp and 5% vine cuttings. Launched in time for US Mother’s Day, the gift boxes are made from 100% natural fibres responsibly sourced from certified sustainable forests in Northern Europe. The simplistic design of a spray of florals minimises ink consumption, while the matte finish eradicates the need for a varnish coating. The casing can be easily recycled in the paper waste stream and is said to be 30% lighter (55g) than the previous version, cutting down on transport emissions.
Tel Aviv-based Bambox reinvented the toilet roll this year. The redesigned daily essential was created to remove excess air from the roll variety, which - according to the brand’s founder - has air between every sheet, air in the cylindrical hole in the centre and air around the outer curves when packed in a shipping box. This design - although not changed for 130 years - is economically and environmentally flawed, and so Bambox was re-invented in. The product sees zig-zagging paper packed inside a tissue-like box with cereal box-like openings, allowing the paper to be pulled out easily and for the box to be hung on a standard toilet roll holder.
Launched in 2022, but gaining huge momentum in 2023, Traceless is a fossil fuel-free alternative to single-use plastics made from polymers extracted from agricultural foodstock waste. Traceless sources its feedstock from side streams from agricultural plant processing that are locally available in high amounts and in many regions. The base Traceless material comes in granulate form. It can be converted by the larger plastic, converting and packaging industry on standard machinery into different applications, for example through injection moulding and extrusions.
German biomaterial startup Mujō developed a range of Algae-based flexible packaging materials. The company turned to fast-growing kelp to create non-toxic and water-soluble fibres, nets, and foils, with a range of transparencies, textures, thicknesses, and colours. Inspired by nature, which has "always designed packaging" that readily breaks down into nature’s basic building blocks – such as fruit peels, nuts, and shells – Mujō’s 100% bio-based materials are designed to disappear. Mujō is in the pilot stage, and is hoping to launch its products to market in 2024. The Berlin-based company’s name, Mujō, is a Japanese concept that refers to the impermanence of all things.
