Eco-friendly tube from Essel Propack wins the prestigious etma award

• "Tube of the Year" Award 2020
• Essel tubes win in the "Sustainability" category

Essel Propack Europe, part of the global manufacturer of laminated plastic tubes headquartered in Mumbai, has received the coveted award of the European Tube Manufacturers Association (etma): This marks the first time Essel wins in the "Sustainability" category with the submitted tubes of happybrush® (SuperCoco and SuperGreen, both vegan toothpastes).

It is the fourth time Essel has been among the shortlisted finalists. The company has already received the award for the Tube of the Year from 2012 to 2014. In this case, the company has won the "Laminate Tube" category three years in a row. The etma award was presented by a jury of renowned representatives from the fields of brand owners, the tube and flexible packaging industry, packaging design, market research and packaging trade fairs in the five categories of Aluminum Tubes, Plastic Tubes, Laminate Tubes, Prototype and Sustainability.

“We are simply delighted having received this award for our tubes,” comments Alan Conner, Vice President of Essel Propack Ltd. Europe. “This is a clear confirmation of Essel’s long-term strategy, as we have been intensifying our efforts to improve the environmental properties of our tubes for several years! We have been working on this area for a very long time, but in the past we have also focused particularly on the application properties of our laminate tubes. We have received the respective recognition for this from 2012 to 2014. Since then, the market has changed significantly and has become faster paced. Product cycles have become extremely shorter and customers are much more demanding today than they were five years ago. This has led to an extremely high level of market dynamics, with a focus on technically sophisticated solutions, changing materials, product protection, interactive features, consumer-friendly closure solutions and materials that are environmentally friendly and preserve resources. This was a very energetic and innovative time for Essel, during which we were able to convince again and again with new ideas and highly reliable products. At the same time, we worked on the issues of the environment and sustainability, and the etma award is now a clear confirmation of our strategy. We are therefore particularly proud that our product is at the very top of the winners‘ podium this year, especially in the area of sustainability!”

The winners

The etma-Award 2020 in the category "Sustainability" went to the completely recyclable tubes SuperCoco and SuperGreen from happybrush®. The laminate used for this is a development of Essel Propack Ltd. (EPL) and therefore a result of the "Go Green" initiative of the company. The award-winning products have a diameter of 35 mm and are among the first commercial laminate tubes that are made out of Post-Consumer Recycled Plastics (PCR). Producing these tubes is very demanding and complex, because PCR tubes must fulfill all the necessary barrier properties over their entire life cycle and return to their original shape after each use.

Why did the etma jury choose a PCR laminate tube?

Classically extruded tubes with PCR usually have a 50% PCR content. This means that only half of new plastic resources are needed for production. However, given the lower wall thickness, the introduction of PCR into laminates is more problematic.

With the happybrush® tube, Essel has taken an entirely new approach by opting for a PCR content of "just" 30 percent. At first sight, this is lower and therefore appears less sustainable. Nevertheless, this variant is considerably more resource-friendly because it enables a considerably lower wall thickness. This alone saves around 30 percent in weight compared to a classic PE tube. For the final product, this actually translates into an overall saving in resources of around 60 percent!

Last but not least, great importance was attached to the topic of sustainability in the development of the artwork, which is based on the existing tubes from the toothpaste range. In this case, a flexo/screen printing combination consisting of three colors and a matt varnish was chosen. The product names SuperCoco and SuperGreen as well as the round arches in the upper part of the tube were highlighted with a silk-screen printed relief lacquer. For the sake of sustainability, further finishing options such as an embossing foil and the like were consistently avoided. The number of colors used therefore remained low and the tube artwork did not have to sacrifice its modern and fresh design.

Alan Conner adds: “This year’s "Tube of the Year" award once again proved how sustainable the packaging material "Tube" is. With our recyclable materials, we are fully in keeping with the current trend.”