Alpla launches rHDPE bottle

Austria-based packaging producer Alpla Group says it has developed a “carbon-optimized prototype solution” for beauty product brand owners in the form of a high-density polyethylene (HDPE) bottle made entirely of recycled-content HDPE (rHDPE).

The company says its Canupak beauty care (shampoo and liquid soap) packaging underscores Alpla’s global sustainability strategy by offering its customers the potential to reduce their emissions volumes or carbon footprint by a considerable amount.

Canupak bottles offer “around 71 percent less carbon consumption than with comparable packaging types, complete recyclability of the bottle and cap, and a total weight of approximately just 14 grams (0.5 ounces),” Alpla says.

“With its ultralight Canupak packaging system, the global packaging and recycling company Alpla has realized carbon-optimized packaging for the field of beauty care," the company says. "The bottle is made entirely of recycled HDPE (rHDPE) sourced from the company’s own plants in the EU. It is also produced exclusively using renewable energies.

“We are gradually reducing carbon emissions and are expanding our expertise across the board of processes, from design and production through to logistics,” says Karina Pölzl, innovation project manager at Alpla. “The carbon-optimized Canupak is the next milestone on the path to the sustainable packaging of the future.”

The carbon footprint of Canupak was calculated in cooperation with London-based ClimatePartner, Alpla says. “We are focusing on further optimizing our products and on maximum recyclability based on design for recycling, and are on the lookout for partners who wish to take the next step in reducing their carbon footprint together with us,” Pölzl says.

“There is increasing demand for sustainable products—among our customers as well as the end consumers," Alpla CEO Philipp Lehner. "Carbon-optimized packaging has a key part to play here. We already have the expertise and experience in producing future-oriented solutions.”

Alpla has as its own targets that its packaging is to be fully recyclable by 2025, with postconsumer recycled material accounting for 25 percent of materials used. The company says it is investing 50 million euros ($52.5 million) per year in recycling activities, increasingly using recycled materials at its plants and is minimizing transport journeys with in-house recycling plants directly at its customers’ premises.

Alpla operates recycling plants for PET and HDPE in Austria, Germany, Poland, Mexico, Italy, Spain, Romania and Thailand.