L’Oréal gives personal care packaging a circularity lift as latest Nextloopp participant

06 Sep 2022 --- L’Oréal has become the latest addition to Nextek’s Nextloopp initiative for creating food-grade and INRT-grade recycled polypropylene (rPP) from post-consumer packaging waste, which now boasts 47 participants. The trial is intended to further the beauty conglomerate’s long-term commitment to sustainable packaging. 

“Nextloopp’s INRT-grade resin is poised to offer the personal care packaging sector a world-first – rPP resin with no odor and no migration challenges developed specifically for high-performance packaging,” Edward Kosior, founder of Nextek, tells PackagingInsights.

The initiative’s technology can identify and sort any number of packaging variants from shower gel bottles to yogurt pots in any plastic type. It uses a combination of technologies to first separate food-grade PP from other material, followed by decontamination of the polymer to ensure compliance with food-grade standards in the UK, EU and US.

Closing the loop
L’Oréal has joined the Nextloopp project team, along with Unilever, Ineos, Lyondellbasell, PFF Group and others, to “boost the circular pathway for food-grade rPP packaging.” 

“We have been working for many years to develop packaging made from high-quality post-consumer recycled polymers,” says Delphine Trillat, materials science domain leader at L’Oréal. 

Furthermore, Kosior reveals to us Nextloopp will be able to provide rPP for other applications in personal care packaging, such as shower gel bottles. “Nearly all the flip top closures on bottles, including shampoo, are made from PP, and Nextloopp resins can readily be used for these applications.”

L’Oréal’s partnership with Nextloopp supports its environmental sustainability efforts.Kosior previously explained how recycled plastics can be a weapon against climate change and how not all recycled plastics offer the same levels of carbon efficiency in an expert view for PackagingInsights.

L’Oréal’s partnership with Nextloopp is in line with its environmental sustainability efforts to reach carbon neutrality at all sites by 2025 and reduce greenhouse gas emissions (scopes 1, 2 and 3) by 50% on average per finished product by 2030.

Additionally, L’Oréal for the Future, launched in 2020, focused on streamlining operations within “planetary boundaries” while addressing urgent environmental and social issues.

Trials and delays 
Nextek launched the Nextloopp project in October 2020 and undertook the first full-scale packaging production trial using its PPristine food-grade resins in June.

While the project is on track, Kosior tells us that the prototype venture has encountered some delays. “As with most prototype ventures, we have faced delays mainly due to COVID-19-related shipping issues.”

“The prototype resins are already under evaluation with many of our members, and more trials will happen in the upcoming quarter,” he says.

By Radhika Sikaria

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