Hoffmann Neopac, a global provider of high-quality packaging for pharma, beauty and oral care, has introduced a first-of-its-kind range of post-consumer recycled (PCR) caps suitable for a wide variety of the company’s tube solutions in the personal care and beauty markets. At its inception, the new series will include recycled high-density polyethylene (rHDPE) screw caps from 19-40 millimeters in diameter, a flip-top cap 35 mm in diameter, and an octagonal cap for sample tubes. Each is fully recyclable in existing HDPE streams.
The new product launch reportedly represents the first wide-scale rHDPE cap series with such a high PCR percentage – approximately 70%. Combined with its various sustainability-minded tubes, the result is a capability to create packaging solutions comprised of up to 77% recycled material.
Like many Neopac packaging options, including the company’s line of Recycled Tube solutions, the new rHDPE caps are backed by a bevy of available designations and certifications. They pass muster for ratings of post-consumer content (PCR), post-industrial recycled (PIR), and International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC+), and can come with food-grade light statements from government entities like the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and US Food & Drug Administration (FDA).
Also like several other Neopac solutions, the rHDPE caps help brand owners save on extended producer responsibility (EPR) fees in markets where they are imposed. The rHDPE caps are produced using 50% green electricity in Neopac’s Switzerland and Hungary manufacturing facilities.
“As tube manufacturers have continued to make progress toward true circularity, caps have always presented a significant sustainability hurdle,” said Cornelia Schmid, Head of Marketing for Neopac. “Rooted in research and materials science, our new rHDPE caps, which contain 70% PCR material, represent a substantial step in the right direction, and we look forward to adding to the series in the coming months.”
The rHDPE are just the latest in Neopac’s ever-growing portfolio of EcoDesign packaging solutions. Earlier this year, the company introduced Eco-Stripped Tube, which combines a significantly reduced sleeve wall thickness with a comparable materials reduction in the shoulder and cap. The result is a 30% reduction in overall virgin materials without sacrificing product protection, haptics or aesthetics. The trimmed-down tubes substantially reduce carbon impact; in fact, four Eco-Stripped Tubes can be made with the amount of materials it takes to produce three conventional tubes of the same size.
Other solutions in Neopac’s EcoDesign portfolio include Polyfoil MMB, whose mono-material barrier brings vastly improved recyclability; Sugarcane Tube, made from renewable raw materials; and PICEA wood tube, comprised of 95% renewable material in the tube body and shoulder – including 10% of spruce wood from wood waste in sawmills.