Colgate-Palmolive stresses need for many voices in environmental innovation

As global packaging sustainability manager at Colgate-Palmolive Co., Anne Bedarf knows improving the environmental footprint for plastics requires more than just one solution.

Just as there are a variety of designs for caps, closures and packaging, there needs to be a variety of approaches to change, reduce or eliminate the use of plastics, she said during a presentation at the recent Plastic Caps & Closures 2021 conference.

Colgate-Palmolive is a consumer products giant with reach into 62 percent of all global households, operations in 75 countries and sales in more than 200 countries and territories.

The company is well known for its oral care products including toothpaste, but it also has well-known brands in the personal care, home care and pet nutrition markets. They include Mennen, Softsoap, Irish Spring, Ajax and Hill's Science Diet.

Colgate, No. 1 in market share for toothpaste around the world, in recent years developed a recyclable tube that eliminated a previously used aluminum layer. Despite developing the new packaging, Colgate opened access to design details so others also could create their own recyclable packaging.

This is part of the company's approach to encourage addressing the issues from a variety of angles.

"I think there's so much momentum through company commitments, governments and just people wanting better systems, less plastics in the oceans. So I think we're going to see lots of change in these areas because there is no silver bullet. Right? We need a diversity of solutions," she said.

"We know recycling alone won't solve the climate crisis or the plastics crisis. But it's going to be key to creating a circular system. But at the same time, I hope that we can work to continue to eliminate plastic and plastic waste," Bedarf said during the conference organized by Plastics News.

Colgate, like so many others, has a set of 2025 sustainability goals and as 2021 quickly gives way to 2022, the time to reach those aspirations is ticking away.

"While there is an expectation that companies will solve sustainability issues, we do need to bring along those who use products with us," she said.

Colgate's goals include producing no unnecessary and problematic packaging; eliminating a third of new or virgin plastic; and making all packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025. As a subgoal of the elimination of a portion of virgin plastic use, the company also wants to have 25 percent of its plastic come from post-consumer sources.

Colgate started introducing changes to the company's toothpaste tubes in 2020 through its Tom's of Maine brand. The expectation is that all tubes will be switched over to the new design within a few years.

"The goal here is to have them be recyclable in practice and at scale by 2025. Colgate is somewhat unique that we make most of our own tubes, so globally billions of tubes," Bedarf said. "We really felt it was important to be a leader in this area.

Colgate's current unrecyclable tube includes the use of linear low density polyethylene, low density PE and an aluminum foil layer. The redesigned tube uses high density PE with 5 percent EVOH to serve as a barrier. Colgate currently uses polypropylene for caps, and that material is under review as the company works to ensure greater recyclability.

A problem with using PP with HDPE is that both materials float during the recycling process. Reclaimers use water tanks to separate different resin types, so having both materials float represents a challenge. Other resins such as PET and polystyrene sink in water.

Caps, she said, "will obviously continue to be an industrywide innovation area."

"Of course, they don't exist in a vacuum. It has to be compatible with the bottle. And as we know for a recycler the ideal is for that resin to be compatible, even though we know that is not the industry norm. So we need more of that [innovation], of course, and to create that circularity, the recycled content," Bedarf said.