In 2023, a completely new plastic packaging was launched on the Swedish market: the SKONA bottle, made from 95 per cent recycled plastic from Swedish households. The project to develop this circular packaging was a successful collaboration across the entire chain, demonstrating that circular plastic packaging is possible.
“Our flagship product for circular plastic packaging”
The new SKONA bottle was presented by Svensk Plaståtervinning and ICA in spring 2023. The plastic in the packaging has been sorted at source by consumers, sorted at Site Zero, recycled by our partners and finally converted into new plastic packaging.
Karin Jawerth, Packaging Manager at ICA, proudly explains that the SKONA bottle reflects their vision of circular material flows.
“ICA’s goal is for all our plastic packaging to be renewable or produced from recycled raw materials by 2030. This is perfectly in line with that. The SKONA bottle has become our role model and flagship for circular plastic packaging,” says Karin Jawerth.
She goes on to say that there was some concern about how consumers would receive the new packaging, as it had changed colour from white to grey.
“We conducted several customer panels and tested consumers’ reactions to the new packaging. We were unsure whether the new colour would appeal. But when they heard the story behind the grey colour scheme and the environmental benefits of this, the response was positive. So we took the plunge,” says Karin Jawerth.
He further believes that communicating the new grey colour was important at launch. Communication efforts were, and still are, needed to normalise the grey colour that results when recycled plastic that is not colour-sorted is used.
“We communicated in various ways, in stores, online, through digital channels, via articles and so on, to explain why the new packaging was grey. We formulated the main message ‘Grey is the new green’ in connection with the launch, and it has worked well,” says Karin Jawerth.
When there are no requirements for a specific colour, the availability of recycled material increases, which means that ICA wants to continue along this path.
“We want to continue using recycled plastic raw materials, especially in the near-food segment, such as detergents, where used packaging can really become new packaging again,” says Karin Jawerth.
The circular plastic packaging would not have been possible without partners in the chain, such as AVL (Aage Vestergaard Larsen A/S), which washed and granulated the material, and Nopa Nordic, which produced the new detergent bottle.
What happens now?
Karin Jawerth believes that there is potential for other products to make the same circular journey.
“We are working on this development all the time. There will be legal requirements for recycled raw materials in the future, and it is important to be ready when that happens. HDPE and PP are good material choices for applications in the near-food segment, so we don’t use food-approved recycled materials unnecessarily,” points out Karin Jawerth.
She says that the collaboration with Svensk Plaståtervinning has been crucial for the circular plastic packaging.
“Svensk Plaståtervinning has played a huge role, they have kept everything together and their sorting with such fine fractions has been crucial to the excellent result. They also have traceability and control over the chain, so we know that it is plastic from Motala that is used for our products,” concludes Karin Jawerth.
