L’Oréal and Albéa first announced they were co-developing paper-based cosmetic tubes last year and said industrial production and a skin care market launch was planned for the second half of 2020.
The new moisturising Anthelios sunscreen body lotion, eco-packed in 200ml paper-based tubes, had been developed to protect the skin, marine life and environment and would first launch in France. L’Oréal would then roll out the product to global markets.
The launch marked the first materialisation of L’Oréal and Albéa’s collaborative work on the paper-based tubes, but the companies said it would not be the last – more L’Oréal brands were in line to follow.
Paper-based tube upscale a ‘technological breakthrough’
L’Oréal and Albéa said: “The development of this cosmetic tube is the first step, achieved in record time, of future cardboard tube launches between L’Oréal Group and Albéa.”
Barbara de Saint-Aubin, managing director of Albéa Tubes Europe, said the manufacturing process to produce the tubes on an industrial scale had been adapted to enable the transition from plastic to cardboard.
“It is a first technological breakthrough for the cosmetics market,” Albéa said.
The packaging major recently completed divestments of its dispensing systems, metal and Brazil business clusters to focus on its ‘legacy’ divisions, including tubes.
Paper-based La Roche-Posay tubes contain 45% less plastic
Made using bio-based and FSC-certified cardboard, the tubes reduced overall plastic content by 45%.
Speaking in a video published on La Roche-Posay's YouTube channel, the brand's international marketing and innovation manager Othman Bennis said: "Today, acting for the environment has become absolutely crucial. These very first tubes integrating carton represent an additional step in improving the ecological footprint of packaging."
"And our goal is not to stop there, but to extend this pilot technology to other important brands and to make it available in as many countries as possible," Bennis said.
Philippe Thuvien, vice-president of packaging and development at L’Oréal, said the paper-based tubes took L’Oréal “one step further” in its efforts to improve the overall environmental footprint and social profile of all its packaging by the end of 2020.
Last year, L’Oréal and Albéa said they would also be conducting a multi-criteria Life Cycle Analysis once the tubes were upscaled.
L’Oréal has made several sustainability commitments in recent times, notably its commitment to zero-net emissions by 2050 as part of the United Nations’ Global Compact Business Ambition for 1.5°C and its part in the business coalition One Planet Business for Biodiversity (OP2B), launched at the United Nations’ Climate Action Summit that pledges to develop business models that limit a global temperature rise above pre-industrial levels.
