Crown Paints is set to
launch paint containers made from 100 per cent recycled plastic – making it the
first paint manufacturer in the UK to do so.
The plastic 2.5 litre
and 5 litre containers, which will be available across Crown Paints’ retail
range as early as mid-August, have been manufactured by packaging solutions
expert Emballator, using 100 per cent post-consumer waste (PCW) plastic for
each container.
The innovative
manufacturing process involves separating polypropylene plastics such as
shampoo bottles, yoghurt pots, plastic water bottles and even elements from
household appliances from unusable plastic waste - saving thousands of tonnes
of PCW plastic from otherwise ending up in landfill.
Once sorted, the PCW
plastic is turned into individual pellets which are then dyed and moulded to
create Crown’s 2.5 litre and 5 litre paint containers, with the dark grey shade
making them instantly recognisable to consumers.
The paint containers,
which will soon be rolled out across the entire Crown Paints range including
its larger 10 litre tubs and Crown Trade products, are also fully recyclable
once empty and clean. With such sustainability credentials, the new paint cans
are the ideal choice for today’s environmentally conscious consumers.
Julie Entwistle,
packaging buyer at Crown Paints said: “We’ve invested a great deal in creating
this innovative new packaging and have worked closely with the Emballator team
to create a product which is made entirely from recycled plastic. This marks a significant
improvement to the plastic paint containers manufactured from 25 per cent
recycled plastic which are currently available in the UK.”
Liz Hickson, marketing
director at Crown Paints added: “We recognise that plastic waste is of huge
concern to all our customers whether in the trade or retail market so we’re
proud to be able to play our part in reducing the volume of reusable post-consumer
waste plastic ending up in landfill unnecessarily. Once the new packaging rolls
out to our full range, it has the potential to save many thousands of tonnes of
plastic each year from otherwise going to waste and we’re pleased to be able to
offer our customers a more sustainable choice at the same time.”
Gerard Dibb, managing
director at Emballator commented: “We are proud to support Crown Paints in
bringing this innovative 100 per cent recycled container to market at a time
when the public’s concerns over plastic waste levels have never been higher.
“Plastic paint can
producers have been striving to break the 25 per cent recycled level for many
years and to reach the 100 per cent level is a great achievement. The technical
requirements of these containers were very challenging but we succeeded by working
in co-operation with leading plastic recycler ImerPlast, whose innovative and
unique compatibilisation of the post-consumer waste made this project
feasible.”
The paint containers
will start to roll off Crown Paints’ production lines next month and will soon
be available in retail outlets and stockists across the UK. Crown is continuing
to work with Emballator to create new packaging solutions for the entire Crown
family of products including Crown Trade, Sadolin and Sandtex.
