Colgate-Palmolive has launched the first toothpaste tube in Australia categorised as recyclable under the Australasian Recycling Label Program.
Featuring 99.7 per cent natural ingredients, the tube is made from high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and can be placed in kerbside plastic recycling bins.
“The Colgate brand is in more homes than any other, so we can and we will create a healthier, more sustainable future for all with this significant packaging development,” says Simon Petersen, GM at Colgate-Palmolive South Pacific.
After five years of creating the tubes, Colgate is eager to encourage its rivals to use them as well, openly sharing its tube technology with interested companies and competitors.
“We want all toothpaste tubes to meet the same third-party recycling standards that we’ve achieved, so we are openly sharing our technology with toothpaste competitors as well as manufacturers of all kinds of tubes,” says Petersen.
Most toothpaste tubes sold in Australia are made with sheets of laminate wrapped around a thin layer of aluminium, which makes them difficult to recycle by conventional methods, leaving around 50 million tubes ending up in landfills every year.
The Colgate tubes, however, are made with HDPE, the same plastic used to make recyclable 2-litre plastic milk bottles.