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Sustainable solutions
Packaging is a key area in the pharma push towards sustainability.
Times they are a-changin’ Cédric Le Dévéhat says that in all his 18 years in Packaging Procurement, he has never seen such green tailwinds. “For consumer healthcare companies, having a strong environmental foundation is crucial. Since the end of 2018, we’ve really witnessed a radical shift when it comes to priorities in pro- curement,” he says, adding that recyclable ma- terials and low carbon footprint are very much in demand now. Follow the fibre During the last three years or so, the company’s view on board packaging has also changed: as excessive use of plastic is now frowned upon in industry, Haleon is very interested in find- ing out what fibre-based innovations could be used in lieu of plastic. “Replacing plastic in consumer healthcare packaging can be a challenge, but we feel that valuable, proven options need to be consid- ered.”
Cédric Le Dévéhat participated in the sustainability workshop in Excellence Centre in November.
One example of this approach is Centrum vi- tamins which are likely to get a new, more sus- tainable packaging solution in the future. “I truly believe that the packaging for Cen- trum could be fibre-based.” •
WANTED: SUSTAINABLE TOOTHPASTE TUBES!
Every year, billions of toothpaste tubes are thrown away, most of which end up in landfill. Haleon wants to change this by making all its toothpaste tubes recycle-ready. Up to know, the problem has been that in order to keep toothpaste safe and fresh, toothpaste tubes have been made of mixed materials, which has included both aluminium and plastic. This has made them difficult to recycle, and as a result people have usually thrown them away. Haleon started swapping the mixed-mate- rial toothpaste tubes – with their traditional aluminium barriers – for a mono material, HDPE,
which is one of the most widely recycled plastics in the world. The company partnered with Albéa Group & EPL company to use their laminate tube technology in its Sensodyne, Parodontax and Aquafresh toothpaste tubes, which can be recy- cled wherever collection programmes exist. So far, Haleon has already produced more than 400 million recycle-ready toothpaste tubes, following the launch of recycle-ready Senso- dyne Pronamel tubes in Europe since September 2021. By 2025, the company aims to hit 1 billion sustainable tubes.
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