Neopac: Market’s first recyclable PE based mono-material tube

Hoffmann Neopac, a global provider of high-quality packaging for a broad array of industries and applications, has introduced the market’s first fully recyclable polyethylene-based tubes with high-density polyethylene (HDPE) flip-top caps. A breakthrough in the worldwide push for packaging sustainability, the mono-material tube + cap combination overcomes a longstanding functionality hurdle for hinged caps, which were previously made predominantly from less recyclable polypropylene (PP) materials.

The new tube solutions are a packaging first: fully recyclable tube solutions whose body, shoulder and caps are composed of a single material family. Also available in screw-top formats, the new tubes are ideal for health & beauty, food and pharma packaging applications.

In existing recycling streams, mono-material plastic packaging is exceedingly more preferable than combination plastics, as its comparable simplicity is considered fully recyclable in mechanical recycling plants and therefore a key factor in moving toward a truly circular packaging landscape.

In addition to the new HDPE flip-top caps, Neopac also is launching a comprehensive portfolio of PE screw caps. Manufactured entirely in-house, the screw caps are available in diameters of 10-40mm.

“Achieved in collaboration with a long-time supplier, the new HDPE flip-top caps overcome the last hurdle to fully recyclable tube packaging – namely, the ability to form functional closures from the same material as the tube body and shoulder,” said Simon Böhlen, Development Engineer for Neopac. “Health & beauty, food and pharmaceuticals brands can now assure their increasingly sustainability-conscious customers that the packaging in which their products are housed has the lowest-possible environmental impact, as we move toward a fully circular packaging economy.”

The full PE Cap range is now commercially available for all Neopac’s PE, COEX, EcoDesign or Polyfoil Range. Starting November 2020, the recyclable fully mono-material PE Tubes with Flip-top cap will be available as stock solutions with the new printing service DigitAll360°.

Looking ahead, Neopac is currently in the development stages of next-generation, HDPE-optimized high-performance barrier tubes (Polyfoil® MMB) with superior decoration options. Available with PE screw-top caps, the forthcoming solutions already have received excellent ratings from Institute Cyclos-HTP, a packaging recyclability certification organization.