Closing the Loop on Packaging (Part 2): Smart Design for Recyclability & Material Innovation
Welcome back to our "Closing the Loop" series. In the first article, we defined the circular economy and its vital importance for the drinks industry, particularly with new regulatory landscapes like Deposit Return Schemes (DRS) and the EU's Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) shaping our future. Last week we explored the power of reuse and refill models – strategies that sit highest on the waste hierarchy.
However, we recognise that for many applications, single-use packaging remains, for now, a widespread reality. So, if we are using packaging designed for a single primary use – predominantly glass bottles and aluminium cans in our industry – how do we ensure it has the best possible chance of staying in circulation, contributing to a circular economy rather than becoming waste? The answer lies in designing for recyclability and embracing material innovation specifically for these materials.
Why Smart Design for Recyclability is Non-Negotiable
When reuse or refill isn't feasible, the next best circular approach is to ensure packaging can be effectively collected, sorted, and recycled into high-quality materials that can be used again, ideally to make new packaging. Good design is fundamental to this:
Maximises Material Value: Well-designed packaging is easier for Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) and reprocessors to handle, resulting in cleaner, higher-value recycled materials (cullet for glass, scrap for aluminium).
Reduces Contamination: Poor design choices or problematic attachments can contaminate entire batches of recyclable materials, rendering them unusable and destined for landfill.
Supports Recycled Content Goals: A steady supply of high-quality recyclate is essential for businesses to meet the growing demand and regulatory targets for incorporating recycled content into new packaging.
Lowers Environmental Impact: Using recycled materials generally requires significantly less energy (especially for aluminium) and fewer virgin resources than producing from scratch.
Key Principles for Designing Recyclable Glass & Aluminium Packaging
Material Purity is King:
Both aluminium and glass benefit from being kept as pure as possible. For glass, using standard colours (clear, green, amber) that align with established collection streams is crucial. For aluminium, avoiding coatings or elements such as shrink wrap labels that complicate the smelting process helps maintain quality.
Example: Choosing standard bottle colours makes it easier for them to be recycled back into new bottles of the same colour stream.
Minimise Non-Recyclable Attachments:
While glass and aluminium are inherently 'mono-material', attachments like labels, caps, and closures can cause issues if they are made from non-recyclable materials or hinder the primary material's recovery.
Example: Ensure labels on glass bottles use water based adhesives that wash off cleanly during the recycling process to avoid contamination. Avoid overly complex closures that combine multiple materials which are hard to separate.
Ensure Ease of Separation:
Design components so they can be easily separated either by the consumer or during the recycling process.
Example: While aluminium cans are straightforward, ensuring caps and closures on glass bottles are easily removable or made of compatible/easily separable materials is important.
Avoid Problematic Components & Contaminants:
For glass, contaminants like ceramics (e.g., some decorative elements or certain types of glass cookware mistakenly mixed in), stones, or excessive non-washable labels can cause major problems in furnaces. Heat-resistant glass (like Pyrex) also melts at a different temperature and is a contaminant. For aluminium, significant plastic elements attached to cans could be problematic.
Example: Using direct printing instead of ceramic transfers for decoration on glass bottles can improve recyclability.
Clear Consumer Guidance through Labelling:
Empower citizens to recycle correctly by using clear, standardised on-pack recycling labels (OPRL). In the UK, the OPRL scheme provides guidance based on local authority collection capabilities for different packaging types.
Boosting Circularity with Recycled Content
A truly circular system requires demand for the materials it collects. Incorporating recycled content into your packaging is crucial for both glass and aluminium:
Recycled Glass (Cullet): Glass is highly recyclable without loss of quality. Using recycled cullet significantly reduces the energy required for furnace operations (every 10% increase in cullet usage can reduce energy consumption by approx. 3%) and decreases the need for virgin raw materials like sand and soda ash. Challenges mainly relate to ensuring colour separation and purity of the collected cullet.
Recycled Aluminium: Aluminium is also highly recyclable and one of the most valuable materials in the recycling stream. Using recycled aluminium to make new cans saves around 95% of the energy compared to producing it from raw bauxite ore. The infrastructure for can recycling is well-established, making high recycled content feasible and highly beneficial. So if you’re going to use aluminium cans or bottles, make sure they’re made from 100% recycled aluminium.
Material Innovation: Refining Glass & Aluminium
While glass and aluminium are established materials, innovation continues:
Lightweighting: Significant progress has been made in reducing the weight of both glass bottles and aluminium cans without compromising strength or performance. This directly cuts resource use, energy consumption in manufacturing, and transport emissions.
Example: Champagne Telmont have developed the world’s lightest champagne bottle at only 800g, a huge challenge for a bottle that has to contain such high pressure.
Improving Recycling Processes: Innovation isn't just about the packaging itself, but also the systems to recover it. Advancements in sorting technology (e.g., using AI) and smelting/processing techniques help improve the quality and yield of recycled materials.
Paper-Based Bottles (as an alternative): While not glass or aluminium, it's worth noting the ongoing development of paper/fibre-based bottles, often with a thin barrier liner. Their place in the circular economy depends heavily on the true recyclability of the composite structure within existing waste streams, offering a different material pathway compared to established glass and metal recycling. The Frugal Bottle is currently leading the way on commercially available paper bottles.
Collaboration is Key to Progress
Optimising the circularity of glass and aluminium packaging requires system-wide effort. Collaboration between designers, manufacturers, brands, waste collectors, recycling facilities (reprocessors), and policymakers is essential to improve collection, sorting, quality of recyclate, and the design of packaging itself.
Next Up: Circularity Within Your Walls
Smart packaging design focusing on aluminium and glass recyclability is vital for the 'outer loop' of material recovery. But what about the circular opportunities within your own production processes? In our final article, we'll explore how to close the loop on waste and water within your drinks business operations.
For today, the focus is clear: when using single-use packaging, make conscious design choices that maximise its chances of staying in the loop and contributing to a truly circular economy.
