Henkel’s Beauty Care business started converting its Hair Coloration portfolio to aluminium tubes made of 100 percent recycled material.

The company’s hair coloration brand Diadem is among the pioneers in the transition towards tubes made of 100 percent recycled aluminium. Further brands will follow later this year.

Lower footprint

The group explains recycled aluminium has a significantly lower energy demand - up to 95 percent less - than virgin aluminium, thus allowing a significant reduction of the CO2 footprint per aluminium tube. In addition, aluminium tubes are fully recyclable and widely recovered through existing waste management systems.

One of the main advantages of aluminium is the recyclability - the material can be recycled infinitely without losing its mechanical properties and sacrificing quality. Therefore, aluminium as a material class is a great enabler for a circular economy, as 75 percent of the aluminium that was ever produced on earth is still in use across various applications,” said Philippe Blank, Head of Circular Economy & Packaging Sustainability at Henkel Beauty Care. “By shifting major portfolios to this recycled material, we are demonstrating our commitment to sustainable packaging solutions. While a great focus is placed on plastic packaging, we are advancing innovation and sustainability holistically, across all materials and packaging types.”

Post-consumer sources

However, due to the high demand across many industries the availability of recycled aluminium is limited. For instance, the material is also used to produce beverage cans. Henkel is therefore working together with its packaging suppliers to explore new ways to source the material and drive progress along the value chain. As a first step, the company will not only use post-industrial recycled aluminium for the tubes but will integrate up to 95 percent recycled material from post-consumer sources as well.

In addition, Henkel will gradually switch the associated plastic caps of the tubes to recycled plastic.

Already since 2014, Henkel has been promoting the use of recycled aluminium in its packaging and pioneering developments within its industry: As the result of a joint development project with packaging supplier Ball Corporation, Henkel introduced the world’s first aerosol cans with a 25-percent recycled aluminium content for deodorant sprays, e.g. under the Fa brand.