ALPLA Group

ALPLA and zerooo create first reusable PET bottle for cos­metic products

Laun­ches in Ger­many in Sep­tember with a 300-millilitre bottle

Hard, 21 August 2024 – zerooo is now pro­du­cing reusable PET pack­a­ging for bath­room and kit­chen: pack­a­ging and recy­cling spe­cia­list ALPLA and zerooo initiator SEA ME GmbH have deve­loped a stan­dar­dised solu­tion for cos­me­tics and care pro­ducts. From Sep­tember, the first brands will be pre­sen­ting shampoo, shower gel, deter­gent, body lotion and dental care pro­ducts in 300-millilitre PET bot­tles. This reusable and fully recy­clable pla­stic pack­a­ging is available in three colours and is sui­table for all caps. A laser-engraved 2D data matrix code pro­vides infor­ma­tion on the con­tents of each bottle and its circulation.

zerooo stands for reusable pack­a­ging that fos­ters the cir­cular eco­nomy in the cos­me­tics industry. The system offered by start-up SEA ME GmbH offers brand manu­fac­tu­rers safe, affordable and sus­tainable PET bot­tles, in addi­tion to glass bot­tles, for the first time. Tog­e­ther with ten brand part­ners and pack­a­ging and recy­cling spe­cia­list ALPLA, the com­pany has deve­loped a fully recy­clable solu­tion. The reusable PET bottle, with a volume of 300 mil­li­li­tres, is available in clear, milky white and brown ver­sions. It is sui­table for all caps and can also be used as a shat­ter­proof alter­na­tive for toi­le­tries in the shower. Fur­ther for­mats are planned.

From Sep­tember, the first manu­fac­tu­rers in Ger­many will pre­sent cos­me­tics and care pro­ducts in PET con­tai­ners from the zerooo reusable system, with Aus­tria fol­lo­wing suit in October. In addi­tion to SEA ME’s own brand, these include sodasan, i+m Natur­kos­metik, Speick, Denttabs, 4 people who care and Aveo from Müller. Emp­ties can be returned to the appro­xi­m­ately one thousand coll­ec­tion points of zerooo retail part­ners for a deposit of €0.50.

Reusable PET boosts the pla­s­tics cycle
As a glo­bally active pack­a­ging manu­fac­turer and recy­cling spe­cia­list, ALPLA is pro­mo­ting closed ‘bottle-to-bottle’ cycles with its own plants. The com­pany con­tri­butes its exper­tise as a system sup­plier and also sup­ports cus­to­mers with design. The zerooo reusable PET bottle was deve­loped in tandem with the SEA ME GmbH team at ALPLA’s in-house STUDIOa design centre at the company’s head­quar­ters in Hard.

With “Design for Recy­cling”, we are set­ting the course early on for optimum recy­cling and the lon­gest pos­sible ser­vice life. Every detail counts when it comes to shape, colour and mate­rial. The reusable system extends the life cycle of the pla­stic bottle, saves mate­rial and reduces its carbon foot­print,’ empha­sises Alex­ander Tränkle, Indus­trial Desi­gner at ALPLA.

With its wealth of know­ledge, the ALPLA deve­lo­p­ment team pro­vided us with signi­fi­cant sup­port in imple­men­ting the brand and reusable pack­a­ging requi­re­ments. We are proud to have suc­ceeded in inte­gra­ting the indi­vi­dual seria­li­sa­tion of bot­tles directly into the pro­duc­tion pro­cess for the first time. This inno­va­tion enables ground­brea­king data appli­ca­tions for pack­a­ging in the con­text of reuse,’ explains Mirko Waraszik, Director of Supply Chain and co-founder of zerooo at SEA ME GmbH.

Inno­va­tive seria­li­sa­tion code: trans­pa­rency and quality
Each zerooo reusable PET bottle is unique. A laser-engraved 2D data matrix code – the zerooo ID – pro­vides infor­ma­tion about the con­tent and cir­cu­la­tion history. ‘The digital label­ling enables trans­pa­rency and ensures the qua­lity of the bot­tles. By com­bi­ning it with the infor­ma­tion from the label, it can also be com­ple­mented with fur­ther pro­duct data,’ explains Jörg Schwärzler, Senior Tech­no­logy Manager at ALPLA. The reusable PET bottle is com­pa­tible with all auto­matic return sys­tems. At the end of their life cycle, the bot­tles and caps are sorted and recycled.

 

About the ALPLA Group
ALPLA is one of the world’s leading companies in the manufacture and recycling of plastic packaging. Around 23,300 employees worldwide produce custom-made packaging systems, bottles, caps and moulded parts at 196 sites across 47 countries. The high-quality packaging is used in a wide range of areas, including for food and drinks, cosmetics and care products, household cleaning products, detergents and cleaning agents, pharmaceutical products, engine oils and lubricants.

ALPLA operates recycling plants for PET and HDPE in Austria, Germany, Poland, Mexico, Italy, Spain, Romania and Thailand. Other projects are being realised elsewhere around the world.

www.alpla.com

 

Infor­ma­tion for editorial
ALPLA, Lukas Österle (Senior Sus­taina­bi­lity Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Manager), +43 (0)5574 6022 132, lukas.oesterle@alpla.com
Pzwei. Pres­se­ar­beit, Joshua Köb, +43 (0)5574 4471 522, joshua.koeb@pzwei.at