Plastic Free Shampooing

With its traditional brand Guhl, the Japanese consumer goods manufacturer Kao is taking a step towards sustainability: the company is using paper packaging for its new Guhl Feste Shampoos “Nature Repair” and “Langzeit Volumen”.

Solid shampoos have become a growing product segment. This is of course mainly due to their advantages in terms of sustainability. The new Guhl Feste Shampoos “Nature Repair” and “Langzeit Volumen” are, according to Kao, free of microplastics and 95 percent biodegradable. “When formulating the product, it was important for us not only to focus on sustainability aspects, but also to continue to keep an eye on the brand-typical product experience,” explains Armin Haery, Marketing Director in the Kao Consumer Division for Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

180 tons of native PET saved

In accordance with the sustainability claim, the solid shampoos are wrapped in FSC-certified paper: just another step on the way to more sustainability in the packaging concepts of the traditional brand Guhl, as Kao emphasizes. Last year’s relaunch of the brand already focused on more sustainable packaging concepts across the entire product range. For example, the Guhl shampoo bottles are made of 50 percent recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET), while the conditioner packaging is made of 100 percent polypropylene (PP) and is therefore completely recyclable. With around 15 million bottles produced per year, Kao saves almost 780 tons of CO2 and 180 tons of native PET by using rPET.