Sanofi and Haleon join PA and PulPac’s Bottle Collective

Consumer health firms Sanofi and Haleon have joined the Bottle Collective, an initiative from PA Consulting and Swedish R&D firm PulPac that aims to develop and scale adoption of fiber-based containers.

Launched in February, the collective aims to drive forward adoption of fiber bottles as an alternative to single-use plastics by partnering with brands across food and drink, consumer health, and consumer packaged goods.

PA, an innovation consultancy, and PulPac have already completed a product prototype using PulPac’s patented Dry Molded Fiber technology, which utilizes renewable pulp and cellulose to produce low-cost packaging. The manufacturing process also produces less CO2 than plastic and uses no water.

Dry Molded Fiber can be molded to custom shapes, sizes, and decorations, and can be used to package water, dairy, non-carbonated beverages, detergent, skin care, hair care, and other products.

Sanofi and Haleon have now joined the collective as founding members, wherein they will “explore the feasibility and co-development of cellulose-based technologies” as alternatives to single-use plastics, according to a press release from PA.

France-based Sanofi has a large portfolio of over-the-counter pharma products, in addition to its prescription drugs portfolio. The pharma and healthcare firm has annual revenue of €42.99 billion.

UK-based Haleon is the largest consumer healthcare business in the world, with products including Advil painkillers, Centrum vitamins, and Sensodyne toothpaste. The firm has annual revenue of £10.86 billion.

“Initiatives like the Bottle Collective provide a real opportunity to work together across industries and forge unique partnerships which have the potential to accelerate innovations in packaging and help to tackle the global plastic waste issue,” said France Depaix, global head of design, product sustainability and packaging innovation at consumer healthcare at Sanofi.

Alex James Orchard, head of R&D packaging at Haleon, added, “We’re aiming to create a future for consumer health product packaging which is more sustainable and more inclusive. Joining the Bottle Collective as a founding member is one of several exciting partnerships that we are forging to strengthen our sustainable packaging innovation program.”