Henkel’s Beauty Care business has started converting its Hair Coloration portfolio to aluminum tubes made of 100 percent recycled material.
 
With this transition covering all Retail and Professional brands globally, Henkel supports a closed loop while at the same time reducing its environmental footprint: recycled aluminum has a significantly lower energy demand – up to 95 percent less – than virgin aluminum, thus a significant reduction of the CO2 footprint per aluminum tube can be achieved.
 
In addition, aluminum tubes are fully recyclable and widely recovered through existing waste management systems.

Note: Another brand promoting sustainability is Pharrell Williams' new brand, Humanrace— with refillable packaging.
 
Infinite Recyclability of Aluminum Tubes
 
“One of the main advantages of aluminum is the recyclability – the material can be recycled infinitely without losing its mechanical properties and sacrificing quality. Therefore, aluminum as a material class is a great enabler for a circular economy, as 75 percent of the aluminum that was ever produced on earth is still in use across various applications,” said Philippe Blank, head of Circular Economy & Packaging Sustainability at Henkel Beauty Care.
 
He continued, “By shifting major portfolios to this recycled material, we are demonstrating our commitment to sustainable packaging solutions. While a great focus is placed on plastic packaging, we are advancing innovation and sustainability holistically, across all materials and packaging types.”
 
Switching to recycled aluminum for applications that are facing rather short lifecycles – like consumer packaging – is an important step to reduce the overall footprint of such fast-rotating packaging items. That is why Henkel is working together with its packaging partners to explore new ways and drive progress along the value chain: the company will not only use post-industrial recycled aluminum for the tubes but will integrate up to 95 percent recycled material from post-consumer sources as well.
 
In addition, Henkel will gradually switch the associated plastic caps of the tubes to recycled plastic. This becomes even more important when considering the recycling downstream of aluminum-based consumer packaging along the value chain, where plastic materials that are still attached to the packaging will not get recovered at all and have no chance to become circular.
 
Pioneering the Use of Recycled Aluminum for Beauty Care Packaging
 
Henkel’s hair coloration brand Diadem is among the pioneers in the transition towards aluminum tubes made of 100 percent recycled aluminum in the company’s Beauty Care portfolio: the complete product range has recently been converted to 100 percent recycled aluminum already. Further brands will follow later this year.