Caps and closures industry looks at recycled content

When it comes to recycling and environmental product design, the ever-present plastic bottle cap has always been something of an afterthought.

But some sustainability experts within the packaging industry believe it's time to rethink the lowly lid, with the idea of a lighter environmental footprint. Right now, that seems to mean a focus on adding recycled content.

"There's been a lot of focus on the bottles in the past, but now is the time for caps and closures," said Allison Lin, vice president of procurement and sustainability at Las Vegas-based packaging maker Westfall Technik Inc. "We are seeing brand owners start to qualify and launch products with recycled content in caps and closures."

Lin was one of three speakers on a panel at the recent 2020 Plastics News Caps & Closures Conference, looking at how sustainability concerns are impacting that niche segment of the packaging industry.

Like Lin, consultant Sandeep Kulkarni sees a focus on recycled content.

"I think caps and closures definitely will sort of go in line with the rest of the packaging," said Kulkarni, president and founder of consulting firm KoolEarth Solutions Inc. "Similar to the bottle, where we have 100 percent recycled PET bottles, I think that the recycled content in closures is also going to keep on increasing and that's going to drive higher recycling rates. That's really where I see the future headed if I have to look into a crystal ball."

Traditionally, he said, incorporating recycled content in caps has been challenging because their small size did not make it economical. As well, he said trends to make bottles and caps lighter weight to reduce resin use could pose hurdles.

But Kulkarni, a former packaging executive at PepsiCo. Inc., International Paper and Georgia-Pacific LLC, said that efforts from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and consumer product companies are pushing recycled content discussions forward.

"I think that's definitely going to drive this initiative towards incorporating more recycled content in caps and closures," he said. "At the end of the day, I think there has to be a pull through from the brand owner."

Lin, whose company last year introduced a plastic closure with up to 100 percent recycled content, said that from a practical point of view, technology has developed to address manufacturing challenges with recycled resin.

"We have technologies now to look at designing the mold using the right hot runner to moderate temperature, looking at the pressure through the molding process so that we can account for the properties of recycled content," she said. "We don't have to wait for technologies that are coming down the pipeline.

"This is our time to be more sustainable for caps and closures specifically and start driving some of that change," she said.

A speaker from McLean, Va.-based food products maker Mars Inc., Paola Appendini, principal engineer for global packaging breakthrough technologies, said the company wants to use more recycled content while facing cost challenges.

"We have a big desire to incorporate recycled content into our packages, but then again we rely on our suppliers to really deliver the technology that will meet our specifications and be within certain cost structure that we can afford," she said. "We know there's a cost to sustainability. We're fully aware of that."

Some companies have been using more recycled content in caps: Coca-Cola Co. won the Innovation Award at the PN conference for a new cap design for its Dasani bottle water brand that uses 30 percent post-consumer recycled resin.

Outside of recycled content, panelists said the caps industry needs to adapt its business model to factors like e-commerce.

Lin said the growth of online shopping is causing caps makers to redesign closures to be able to handle the extra demands.

"I've gotten a lot of shipments where there's broken closures and liquid all over the package, and no one wants that," she said. "We're really focusing on how we improve the e-commerce closures … to improve the sustainability and reduce waste through the supply chain and the e-commerce supply chain."

Similarly, Appendini says designing packaging for e-commerce is increasingly important for her company, whether that's in material choice or the space needed for shipping.

"We are working on making sure that whatever we're designing for e commerce from the boxes to potentially the primary pack not only are complying with e-commerce requirements, but that they are also using the most sustainable approaches," she said. "For caps and closures, I think it's a huge opportunity for designing the right thing for a space that's going to grow quite a bit."

Designing packaging for reuse is another area that the panelists highlighted. Appendini said Mars, which owns brands like M&M, Tasty Bite and various pet food companies, is looking at reusable packaging, and for caps that could mean rethinking the function of a closure so that it is tied to discounts or some other benefit, to provide another draw for the customer.

"There could be an example where we start making durable goods with amazing caps and closures that can be reused and are somehow interconnected, providing incentives for consumers to reuse those and they get discounts or things like that," she said. "How can I gather all these opportunities to create value for consumers so that it's not just an additional cost, but it's something that they really want?"

As well, Lin said reusable packaging offers some intriguing models.

"I love that Paola brought up reuse because we haven't talked about that scheme as much, but if there's a way for reuse to intersect with recyclable, I think that is a great area to be in," she said. "If we can drive reuse of products and reduce the amount of materials we need to produce and still be able to recycle it at the back end, then we'll really have a more sustainable solution for the consumers."

The panel also felt that consumers are being given confusing messages about recycling, particularly from the resin identification code, the technical name for the triangle or chasing arrows-like symbol on the bottom of plastic packaging.

Legally speaking, the code is only meant to convey what type of plastic is used in a packaging, but panelists said consumers often see it as evidence that the package is recyclable, even if it's not.

"I think one of the big points of confusion has been the old resin identification code system," Kulkarni said. "I think everybody on this panel recognizes that that cannot be called a recycling code, but I think the common consumer is still getting confused when they see those chasing arrows. They believe that the bottle or the package is recyclable."

Appendini agreed the resin identification code is confusing and said it feeds into wider problems caused by lack of standardization in public messages around what is and isn't recyclable, especially because local governments make those decisions individually for their programs.

"I completely agree with you, Sandeep; I think not only it's the recycling symbols or the material identification symbols that are confusing, but I think it's also the fact that there's no harmonization and infrastructure," she said. "It's very much at the local level.

"Because people don't understand and know what's happening in their community and they hear differently from other communities, this skepticism starts being created, it's almost like a conspiracy theory," Appendini said. "[They ask,] 'Why should I do this if it's not going to get recycled anyway?' So I agree that education is really, really important."

Others also point to public confusion: A 2019 survey of Americans by the Consumer Brands Association found that 68 percent incorrectly said the symbol meant a plastic packaging was recyclable.

Environmental groups like Oceana argue that results in what's called wish cycling, or consumers throwing nonrecyclable packaging into the recycling bin, causing more contamination and higher sorting costs for recycling programs.

Lin said industry needs to design packages that are more recyclable.

"I think it's our responsibility as an industry to make it easier for consumers to recycle and reduce that confusion," she said. "I think education will only get you so far if we don't make it convenient and easy for consumers."

She highlighted several steps: designing with recyclable materials; making products out of the same material when possible to aid recyclability, such as replacing polypropylene caps with HDPE on HDPE bottles; reducing confusion around mixed plastics; and making it easy to disassemble a product for recycling if that's needed.

"It is very confusing to consumers, and I think it is partially our responsibility to make it a lot easier both from a design perspective, with MRF technology improvements and with labeling," Lin said.