Nivea Products in Packaging Made From Renewable Plast
Nivea manufacturer Beiersdorf is launching more environmentally friendly packaging. They are fully recyclable.
Just at the end of last year, Beiersdorf announced its cooperation with the global company SABIC. The aim of the collaboration: to produce more sustainable cosmetics packaging from the certified renewable polypropylene (PP). Starting in June, facial care products from the NIVEA- Natural-Balance range will be on the shelves in almost 30 countries in the more environmentally friendly packaging. “We are proud to be a pioneer in our industry when it comes to renewable plastic packaging”, said Jean-François Pascal, Vice President Corporate Sustainability at Beiersdorf.
“Our high-quality skin care products naturally include equally high-quality packaging, which has to meet many requirements”, says Michael Becker, Head of Global Packaging Development at Beiersdorf. “These include, on the one hand, visual, and haptic demands that our users are accustomed to from NIVEA, but also the complete recyclability – in line with the intended circular economy.” Beiersdorf has set itself the goal of using 50 percent less petroleum-based virgin plastic by 2025 – likewise, all packaging should be reusable, refillable, and recyclable. In addition, an important criterion regarding the choice of raw material and supplier was that the so-called “feedstock concept” based on a second-generation starting material. This was a given with tall oil. Producing packaging from sugar cane or corn and thus making use of a food source was out of the question. “The certified renewable plastic we source from SABIC has no visual conspicuity or other adverse properties. As a result, the jar made from renewable PP is neither visually nor haptically distinguishable from the previous packaging.”
In addition, SABIC takes a holistic approach to sustainability with its feedstock concept. “This convinced us,” explains Hannah Rasel, Senior Packaging Specialist at Beiersdorf.
New supplier relationships
For the new packaging concept, Beiersdorf has also taken a new approach to purchasing, as Isabel Hochgesand, Chief Procurement Officer at Beiersdorf, explains: “We are now getting involved much earlier and deeper within the supply chain, where we are building new supplier relationships. Becoming more sustainable as a manufacturer also means driving the development of new materials along the value chain. We are going beyond previous supplier relationships and bringing upstream suppliers together with our Tier 1 suppliers.” In fact, Beiersdorf had identified SABIC itself and then brought it to the table to work with Berry Global, a longtime supplier of facial care jars, to implement the switch to more sustainable packaging. Beiersdorf considers this approach to be a key factor in taking the project from idea to implementation in just nine months. “We need these strong partnerships along the value chain and are very happy that we were able to set up such a good cooperation with our suppliers Berry Global and SABIC,” adds Julia Wiedemann, Global Category Manager Sustainable Packaging in Purchasing at Beiersdorf.
