Sustainability at Semaine Health

When we were introduced to Semaine, they had a mission in mind…Sustainable Packaging for their women’s health supplements. The package would need to protect their product, so exceptional performance barriers were not an option. Raising the stakes, it was important that the packaging look fabulous all the while making sure it was ecologically and socially responsible. We immediately thought of Aluminum bottles that they could print instead of label, and a 100% PCR closure in keeping with their sustainable goal. We explained that the aluminum bottle could be infinitely recycled, . For every ton of aluminum recycled, the savings are 14,000 Kw/Hr of energy, saving 270 cubic feet of landfill space, and 6,545 liters of oil. When compared to Glass Bottles (Recycled at ~39.6%), Plastic Bottles (Recycled at ~20.3%), Aluminum is the clear winner at an ~45.2% recycling rate.

The sustainable metrics had to be coupled with exceptional performance barriers and here we could taut that the aluminum bottle had no discernible MVTR rate (3rd party tested), and would also score better than any other packaging material they were reviewing (plastic, paper, or glass). Oxygen Transmission Rates, UV light, and Odor transmission are areas where aluminum scores exceptionally well. In addition, we knew that aluminum is incredibly light weight, an added shipping sustainability benefit.

While all of these benefits are great, the thing that most innovators often overlook is the ease of going from ideation to commercialization. The beauty of this aluminum bottle was that it could go directly to an existing fill line. There was no need to re-invent a production operation in order to facilitate the new package, so speed to market was unconstrained by equipment capital requirement or additional production space.

Semaine decided to use 100% PCR content in their closure, which they understood would be generated from plastic processed responsibly, that would otherwise end up in landfills or the ocean floor.

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NuGen have been the most FANTASTIC partners a business could ask for! They’ve helped us innovate our packaging solutions and set us miles above our competition by being ahead of the game and always on the lookout for the most sustainable packaging. But not just that, they problem solve and communicate better than any other partners we’ve worked with — my team never have to worry about missed deadlines or slipping production dates because we know NuGen have our backs all the way through the process. Any updates or changes we hear about right away and NuGen always works harder for us than they have to to solve any problems that pop up. I seriously can’t praise them enough!
Lauren Lee-Crane
CEO, Cofounder Semaine Health