Crown Paints has announced it is set to launch paint containers made from 100% recycled plastic – making it the first paint manufacturer in the UK to do so.

The plastic 2.5 litre and 5 litre containers, which will be available across Crown Paints’ retail range as early as mid-August, have been manufactured by packaging solutions expert Emballator, using 100 per cent post-consumer waste (PCW) plastic for each container.

The innovative manufacturing process involves separating polypropylene plastics such as shampoo bottles, yoghurt pots, plastic water bottles and even elements from household appliances from unusable plastic waste - saving thousands of tonnes of PCW plastic from otherwise ending up in landfill.

Once sorted, the PCW plastic is turned into individual pellets which are then dyed and moulded to create Crown’s 2.5 litre and 5 litre paint containers, with the dark grey shade making them instantly recognisable to consumers. 

The paint containers, which will soon be rolled out across the entire Crown Paints range including its larger 10 litre tubs and Crown Trade products, are also fully recyclable once empty and clean. With such sustainability credentials, the new paint cans are the ideal choice for today’s environmentally conscious consumers.

Packaging buyer at Crown Paints, Julie Entwistle said: “We’ve invested a great deal in creating this innovative new packaging and have worked closely with the Emballator team to create a product which is made entirely from recycled plastic. This marks a significant improvement to the plastic paint containers manufactured from 25 per cent recycled plastic which are currently available in the UK.”

Marketing director at Crown Paints, Liz Hickson added: “We recognise that plastic waste is of huge concern to all our customers whether in the trade or retail market so we’re proud to be able to play our part in reducing the volume of reusable post-consumer waste plastic ending up in landfill unnecessarily. Once the new packaging rolls out to our full range, it has the potential to save many thousands of tonnes of plastic each year from otherwise going to waste and we’re pleased to be able to offer our customers a more sustainable choice at the same time.”

managing director at Emballator, Gerard Dibb commented: “We are proud to support Crown Paints in bringing this innovative 100 per cent recycled container to market at a time when the public’s concerns over plastic waste levels have never been higher.

“Plastic paint can producers have been striving to break the 25 per cent recycled level for many years and to reach the 100% level is a great achievement. The technical requirements of these containers were very challenging but we succeeded by working in co-operation with leading plastic recycler ImerPlast, whose innovative and unique compatibilisation of the post-consumer waste made this project feasible.”

The paint containers will start to roll off Crown Paints’ production lines next month and will soon be available in retail outlets and stockists across the UK. Crown is continuing to work with Emballator to create new packaging solutions for the entire Crown family of products including Crown Trade, Sadolin and Sandtex.