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Nivea Pursues Sustainable Packaging from Every Angle

Beiersdorf uses the 4R approach of Reduce, Recycle, Reuse, and Replace to develop industry-first sustainable packaging for its personal care products.

sustainable packaging 1
The Eco-Valve, used for Nivea’s new EcoDeo line, uses inert gases as a propellant in aerosol sprays while still providing the performance and spray quality of traditional valves.

Like many other Consumer Packaged Goods brands with ambitious sustainable packaging goals, Beiersdorf is using various packaging technologies and strategies. It follows what it calls the "4R approach" of Reduce, Recycle, Reuse, and Replace to create more sustainable packaging.

For a brand known for its iconic blue branding, Nivea is looking quite green these days. In the past two years, it has made changes to the packaging and formulations for a number of its personal care products to reduce their carbon footprint. Many of these changes represent industry firsts. It’s all part of Hamburg, Germany-based parent company Beiersdorf’s Care Beyond Skin sustainability agenda, which lays out ambitious goals under three areas, the Environment, Society, and the Consumer, to foster a circular economy and a climate-positive future.

“Humanity is facing a growing amount of environmental and societal challenges, and the urgency, especially for global companies, to act and to contribute to a positive change, has never been higher,” says Beiersdorf. “We formulated our corporate purpose—Care Beyond Skin—and with this, put our existing self-understanding into words. It states very clearly that we see our responsibility as going far beyond our core business of skin care.”

Overall, the company has committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2025 (versus base year 2018), which it says is among the most ambitious targets in the industry. Regarding its product packaging, Beiersdorf has made a number of sustainable packaging commitments around the focus area of “Fully Circular Resources.” This includes reducing its use of fossil-based virgin plastic by 50% by 2025 versus base year 2019, increasing the use of recycled material in its plastic packaging to 30% by 2025 versus 2019, and making 100% of its packaging refillable, reusable, or recyclable by 2025.

The result for its flagship brand Nivea has been a flurry of new sustainable packaging formats and products over just the past two years. Among them is the first 100% post-consumer recycled-content aluminum aerosol can and a new aerosol valve technology that reduces emissions and extends the product’s use. Another is a reusable, refillable packaging system for hand soap. Nivea is also reducing its use of virgin plastic with two new packages: a plastic jar made from bio-based material and a lightweighted bottle for shower gel, which also contains 96% recycled material. And, lest we forget paper, in 2021, Nivea replaced a laminated carton with one embellished with transfer metallization that allows for recyclability.

Addressing Aluminum Packaging Challenges

Nivea mainly uses plastic to package its skincare products, including body and face lotions, creams, lip care, body wash, and sunscreen. However, it uses aluminum packaging for its deodorant and shaving gel products, especially for aerosol spray formulations. Beginning in May 2021, Beiersdorf began collaborating with Swiss aluminum can company Nussbaum Matzingen AG to develop the first aerosol can made from 100% post-consumer recycled aluminum to reduce the CO2 footprint of its aerosol cans.

sustainable packaging 2Beginning in May 2021, Beiersdorf began collaborating with Swiss aluminum can company Nussbaum Matzingen AG to develop the first aerosol can made from 100% PCR aluminum.In an interview with Aerosol Europe , Nussbaum CTO Markus Tomasini explained that the company had to overcome several challenges to produce a 100% PCR aluminum alloy. One challenge was making sure the pressurized aluminum can was safe. Until recently, the needed strength could only be achieved by using aluminum slugs with at least 99.5% virgin aluminum. Another hurdle was finding enough recycled aluminum material, as “only 20% of the global aluminum demand may be covered by recycled material,” Tomasini explained. And last, even if Nussbaum were able to secure the sustainable packaging material, the concern was that the recycled aluminum would have a worse carbon footprint due to long transportation routes and complex and costly collection and sorting processes.

Nussbaum’s solution, Tomasini shared with Aerosol Europe, is to use mono-material aluminum beverage can scrap from the German Yellow Bin waste disposal system, whereby post-consumer plastic, metal, and paper waste is returned to collection points for recycling. Nussbaum presses the aluminum scrap and converts it into slugs using the impact extrusion process it typically employs for its standard cans.

“The waste collection point, the aluminum processor, and our factory are located within a span of 150 kilometers,” Tomasini told the publication. “We have short transport routes, something that optimally supports the sustainability goal. And what is extremely important is that there are no compromises with regard to quality or appearance, nor are safety or processability compromised compared to standard aluminum aerosol cans.”

“Tool and process innovation were the key to being able to process the high alloy content in the post-consumer-recycled material,” he added.


Read article   Read related story, “Re:Water is First in the Market with a 100% PCR Aluminum Bottle.”


First to market with a 100% PCR aluminum aerosol bottle

In December 2021, Nivea became the first global company to widely adopt Nussbaum's Nucan-PCR 100% recycled aluminum alloy. It used this alloy for many of its Nivea Men deodorant sprays and most Nivea Men shaving gels in Germany. The brand is continuing to roll out the new sustainable packaging for these products throughout European markets this year.

Along with the use of 100% PCR aluminum, Nivea also lightweighted the new aerosol can for a further reduction in GHGs. According to Beiersdorf, Nucan-PCR delivers a 28% decrease in CO2 emissions without any loss in quality when compared to the aluminum cans previously used for its Nivea spray deodorants. “For the shaving gel aluminum cans, the CO2 emissions could be reduced by even 35%,” it adds.

Furthermore, Alban Bourcier, Packaging Expert Deo & Aerosols, Beiersdorf, shares that with the recently launched Nivea Men deodorants and Nivea Men shaving gels in 100% PCR aluminum, the company will eliminate approximately 1,660 tons of virgin aluminum in 2022.

Aerosol can valve reduces GHGs, lengthens product use

In another first for aerosol packaging, in December 2021 Beiersdorf introduced a new valve technology for aluminum aerosol deodorant cans that reduces GHGs. The Eco-Valve, made by Salford Valve Company Ltd. (Salvalco), uses eco-friendly inert gases like nitrogen, CO2, or compressed air instead of the traditional propellants in aerosol sprays while maintaining the performance and spray quality of regular valves. “This brings about a higher yield per can, resulting in a significant reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, while delivering an excellent spray quality,” explains Beiersdorf.

The partnership between supplier and CPG began in 2020 when Beiersdorf acquired an equity stake in U.K.-based Salvalco through OSCAR&PAUL Beiersdorf Venture Capital. Beiersdorf made the investment to strengthen its footprint in sustainable packaging solutions and to support Salvalco’s research and commercialization of the patented Eco-Valve technology. The late 2021 launch of Nivea’s EcoDeo line of deodorants with the Eco-Valve applicator represented the first-ever use of the patented technology.

sustainable packaging 1The Eco-Valve, used for Nivea’s new EcoDeo line, uses inert gases as a propellant in aerosol sprays while still providing the performance and spray quality of traditional valves.As Salvalco explains, the Spray Research Group (SRG) at the University of Salford in the U.K. developed the patented Bubbly-Flow Technology used by the Eco-Valve. “It is this technology that enables aerosols to be propelled successfully by harmless compressed inert gases,” it shares. “Significantly better for the environment, it is also far safer than conventional propellants, which typically use hydrocarbons.”

Eco-Valve technology is a total system of valve and mechanical break-up (MBU) insert technology. Beiersdorf’s Bourcier explains: “The unique Eco-Valve concept optimizes the mix between formula and propellant. In combination with the MBU technology, the Eco-Valve system improves the formula nebulization in the spray cone angle.”

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