UK – Personal care brand KanKan has upgraded its sustainable packaging, adding a new visual identity and reusable pumps made of recycled plastic to its soap tin cans.
The company collaborated with design agencies Morrama and Two Times Elliot to combine the brand’s aesthetics with functional packaging.
Morrama was responsible for designing the recycled plastic pump that clips directly onto the can and can be reused time and time again.
Meanwhile, banding studio Two Times Elliott developed a brand identity that draws on both the blocky aesthetic of the can and the natural ingredients that go into Kankan’s products.
The soap cans are made from tinplate instead of aluminium to avoid rust and feature a lid that peels off completely to attach the pump.
The products are shipped in cardboard packaging, helping to further reduce the company’s carbon footprint.
Eliza Flanagan, Kankan co-founder said: “It’s a more elevated, premium offer that matches the quality of the products within.
“Our mission is to show that modern sustainability needn’t be harking back to the days of old. We feel it can have a broader appeal.”
Founded in 2019, KanKan’s mission statement is to “make refills mainstream” and “reduce the consumption of single-use plastics in the home”.
Aluminium is a key material for sustainability as it can be continually recycled, with 75% of all aluminium that has ever been produced still in use today.
The launch comes at a time when Britons dispose of nearly 100 billion pieces of plastic packaging a year, according to a survey by Greenpeace.
Of the plastic waste produced only 12% of the single-use packaging used by households is sent for recycling.
“Just 12% of all this plastic is likely to end up being recycled in the UK, despite the public’s alarm about the issue and efforts to recycle,” said Chris Thorne, plastics campaigner at Greenpeace UK.
“The rest becomes pollution, whether through landfilling, incineration or export to countries all around the world, gradually contaminating everything – our water, our food, even the air we breathe.”
The introduction of the UK’s Plastic Packaging Tax in 2022 could help increase the rate of recycling in the country.
Under the law, any company manufacturing or importing finished plastic packaging – empty or filled – would be charged 239 per tonne for materials containing less than 30% of recycled plastic at 10+ tonnes in 12 months.
The tax, which had to be declared every quarter and would be collected by the UK’s HM Revenue &Customs (HMRC), applied to all industries using plastic packaging, including the cosmetics and personal care sector.
For all the latest packaging and printing industry news from Africa and the World, subscribe to our NEWSLETTER, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn, like us on Facebook, and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
