Designing for EU packaging requirements

The Structure Decides What You Can Claim

Recycled content, recyclability and reuse are increasingly things a brand has to demonstrate rather than describe. Most of that is decided at the packaging structure — before material, before decoration, and well before the claim is written.

This page sets out the structural options we can actually supply, and what each one solves.

Exploded view of an airless bottle: AS cap, treatment pump, inner bottle, vacuum plug and outer bottle, each part named
Where the difficulty actually is

Dispensing Components Are the Hard Part

A bottle is usually straightforward. The pump, the sprayer and the closure are where packs become mixed-material, because a conventional dispensing mechanism contains a metal spring. That single component is what keeps a pack out of a clean recycling stream.

Mono-material Construction

Mixed materials have to be separated before they can be recycled.

An all-PP airless bottle, or a trigger sprayer with a plastic external spring instead of a metal one, stays in a single stream. Nothing has to be pulled apart first.

Removing the Metal Spring

Most pumps and triggers contain a metal spring, which is what stops them being handled as one material.

External plastic spring designs remove the component rather than working around it. This is the single change that does most for a dispensing pack.

Refillable Structures

Refill claims often fail because the refill needs its own tooling and its own pack.

Airless bottles with a replaceable inner cup, and deodorant sticks with a replaceable inner structure, reuse the outer body that already exists.

PCR Content

Recycled content changes color consistency, and the effect differs by component.

PCR is workable across several of our formats. The practical constraint is color matching, which is why the reference standard should be agreed on a physical sample.

Material Reduction

Packaging weight and empty space are being looked at more closely than they used to be.

Single-wall alternatives to double-wall jars, and wall thickness review at the tooling stage, reduce material per unit without changing the format.

Where we can and cannot help

What We Supply, and What Stays With You

Being clear about the split is more useful than a general commitment.

  • We can supply mono-material structures, metal-free dispensing designs, refillable inner-cup formats, PCR options on selected formats, and tooling changes that reduce material per unit.
  • We can document the material of every component in the pack, so your own assessment starts from an accurate bill of materials rather than an assumption.
  • We can give our view on how a structure is likely to be assessed, based on what we supply and what we have seen. What we cannot do is issue recyclability certification or a compliance statement — that comes from your own testing and declaration.
  • We do not run formula compatibility testing, because it needs your formula. We supply fit-checked components for you to test against.
Virgin PP resin pellets next to PCR resin pellets, showing the difference in base colour
Start with the project details

Bring Us the Constraint You Have Been Given

If a retailer or a regulation has handed you a requirement — recycled content, a recyclability target, a refill format — send it with the pack you are using now. The useful answer is which structure gets you there, and what it changes.

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