From Plastics Today, read more here.
Vendors of plastic packaging continue to find new pathways to provide brands and others with in-demand alternatives to make packaging more acceptable for the growing number of environmentally-minded consumers. One of the more popular tactics is to use post-consumer recycled (PCR) content, which has gained a foothold as a popular polymer for containers.
PCR now takes the next step into packaging components through Silgan Dispensing (Richmond, VA), a global provider in the design, development and distribution of engineered pumps and sprayers in home, health and beauty markets. The company debuts a suite of plastic dispensing products featuring PCR plastic to help brands better meet their sustainability initiatives.
“To consumers, sustainable packaging is more than a ‘nice to have’, it’s something they are demanding of brands more and more,” says Brinder Gill, senior manager, global beauty category development. “Silgan Dispensing’s PCR products give our clients an innovative way to meet this growing consumer need, while also helping achieve their own sustainability goals.”
With the release of these products, Silgan Dispensing is the first company in the world to manufacture a full family of market leading pumps and trigger sprayers containing PCR. The recycled polypropylene is sourced from consumers’ curbside plastic waste collection, Gill informs PlasticsToday.
Silgan Dispensing’s PCR products portfolio includes SD200 lock-down dispensers, TS800 trigger sprayers, SD20C liquid soap dispensers and the Mark VII Max, a fine-mist sprayer that combines high performance with buttery-smooth actuation. Color options are black for stateside markets and black and basalt grey in Europe.
The offerings tie into consumer trends aligned with sustainable packaging. Among numerous such studies, a 2017 report found that 37% of millennials check packaging labels for sustainability—more than any other generation. Silgan Dispensing’s new PCR products will help alleviate the challenges expressed by its customers around this increasingly important issue. The use of PCR also addresses growing concerns over plastics in the environment.
Made from previously used plastic diverted from landfills to be reused in a new product, PCR offers exciting new possibilities to reduce waste and energy use while still achieving the highest levels of performance. PCR content by weight ranges from 28% to 98%, depending on the dispenser.
How can brands message these “greener” solutions on-package?
“We’ve seen many brands in the marketplace today add ‘Made from x% PCR’ information to the packaging,” Gill tells PlasticsToday. “We have also seen tags placed on bottle necks and full marketing campaigns around the fact they are using plastics that were destined for landfill in their packaging.”
The new-to-market product line has already found a customer.
“A customer of ours is using our trigger with three components using 100% PCR and there is more to come,” Gill discloses.