Elopak and partners launch circular cartons for EU PPWR compliance

Elopak, in collaboration with its customers Orkla Home and Personal Care (OHPC) and Dow, has unveiled a new line of D-Pak cartons featuring a mix of circular (recycled) PE and bio-circular (renewable) polymers.

The line aims to facilitate compliance with the EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), which mandates incorporating recycled content in packaging by 2030.

Anne Marheim Støren, sustainability director at OHPC, says: “Across all our brands we have seen a strong consumer preference for Elopak’s sustainable cartons. Introducing circular PE as a standard allows us to deliver even more robustly on our customers’ sustainability priorities, as well as ensure that our business is proactively prepared for the upcoming EU regulation on recycled content.”

Innovation in protective layering

Each D-Pak carton is made from responsibly sourced paperboard and designed with thin layers of polymers to protect the product inside, according to Elopak.

This plastic layer will include 10% post-consumer circular PE. The rest of the PE fraction will be supplied from bio-circular polymers sourced from vegetable-based waste, including used cooking oil.

Emilie Olderskog, director of sustainability at Elopak, says: “We are early movers in offering this mix of circular and bio-circular materials, showcasing our commitment to circularity and to significantly reduce GHG emissions in line with our Scope 3 25% reduction target. This reinforces Elopak’s position as a sustainability frontrunner.”

“Elopak cartons are already a sustainable packaging choice, circular and bio-circular. The inclusion of circular PE now helps to reduce the amount of plastic that ends up in landfills, supporting the transition to a circular economy where recycled waste materials replace virgin materials.”

Rollout of circular packaging

The updated D-PAK cartons, now available across the Nordics, are being introduced across OHPC’s full product range packaged by Elopak. This includes brands such as Klar, OMO, and Comfort, used for laundry detergent and fabric softener.

Marian Gmenta, marketing lead circular & renewable solutions at Dow, comments: “We are proud to continue our collaboration with Elopak and their partner Orkla Home and Personal Care. We are committed to being the partner of choice in providing innovative bio-circular and circular polymers that can help support the shift toward a lower carbon and circular economy and drive readiness well ahead of legislative targets.”

This year, Elopak secured exclusive global rights to market, sell, and distribute Blue Ocean Closures’ fiber-based caps for D-Pak as a way to support a more renewable, low-carbon, and low-plastic dependent packaging sector.