European firms develop eco-friendly toothpaste tube

Using sustainable bioplastics developed by a German company, a Swedish natural toothpaste maker has partnered with a Swedish tube manufacturer to produce a biodegradable toothpaste tube.

allVeggie's Prabhupada brand toothpaste, made from natural substances, now comes in an environmentally friendly tube manufactured by Tectubes. Working with materials developed and supplied by FkuR, Tectubes injection molds, extrudes, and prints the various parts of the tube.

The Prabhupada toothpaste's biodegradable tube. Image courtesy of allVeggie.

The Prabhupada toothpaste's biodegradable tube. Image courtesy of allVeggie.

"Using bio-resins for such an application was a challenge for us," said Johan Barkentin, project leader at Tectubes, in a press release. "We needed to have compatibility between the different parts, and match them together with good conversion properties. By using FkuR's expertise and range of sustainable bioplastics we were able to reach a very satisfactory solution."

Bioplastics are a class of polymers that have properties comparable to conventional polymers, but are made from renewable resources or enable the biodegradability of the products made from this material.

"This development shows the versatility of biopolymers and how far biopolymers have progressed with respect to processability and final characteristics," said Bjarne Högström, FkuR's sales representative for Scandinavia.