Mono-Material Packaging: Beauty’s Next Sustainability Shift

At a Glance: Sustainability and Premium no longer have to be competing objectives due to advances in mono-material packaging for cosmetics. Read on for breakthrough types of mono-materials—and discover the many advantages of mono-material packaging. From sorting to recycling, this type of sustainable packaging solution delivers the aesthetics, usage, and regulatory requirements that beauty and personal care consumers are looking for.

Amid growing pressure to reduce packaging waste and improve recyclability, mono-material packaging for cosmetics is emerging as an increasingly important design strategy for beauty brands. For consumers, simplified mono-material packaging structures make products easier to sort and recycle. For brands, they offer an opportunity to respond to evolving regulatory requirements. In addition, consumers have heightened sustainable packaging expectations. Mono-material designs deliver these benefits without compromising performance, protection, and aesthetic appeal. And these qualities are essential for beauty and personal care products.

“One of the key advantages of mono-material packaging is reduced material complexity,” explains Melanie Gaudun, Manager, Business Development and Marketing at Viva Healthcare Packaging. “When the primary components are made from the same polymer family, there are fewer different materials to separate during recycling.”

Lisa Huett, Director of Sustainability & ESG at Pretium Packaging, says, “Mono-material packaging can also help brands support sustainability goals. It simplifies reporting requirements, and provides greater clarity around material composition as regulations and EPR programs continue to evolve. “It also gives packaging teams a more straightforward starting point for evaluating recyclability, compliance, and long-term packaging strategies. This is why we’re seeing increased interest across the beauty and personal care market.” 

Consumer participation is an important part of the equation, according to Gaudun. “When a package is designed for the intended recycling stream, keeping compatible components together—for example, keeping the closure on the package—can make disposal more intuitive for consumers,” she says. 

Sustainability With a Premium Aesthetic

A common misnomer about mono-material packaging for cosmetics is that it can’t look upscale.  

At Pretium Packaging, which maintains an extensive portfolio spanning mono-material bottles, jars, and closures in PET, HDPE, and PP, Jessica Ransburg, Director of Market Development, Personal Care, reports seeing growing opportunities to use mono-material solutions as a foundation for premium aesthetics. 

“Historically, one perceived drawback of mono-material packaging has been the belief that brands must choose between sustainability and premium aesthetics,” she says. “Some packaging applications also require specialized barrier or performance characteristics that may influence material selection. However, for many beauty and personal care products, those concerns are increasingly being addressed through better design and engineering rather than more material complexity.”

She also points to the role of texture as a sustainable design tool. Molded-in texture, embossing, debossing, thoughtful color selection, and other decoration techniques are examples.

“Rather than asking, ‘What do we have to give up in order to be more sustainable?’ brands increasingly have opportunities to achieve both sustainability and differentiation,” Ransburg says. “That’s where collaboration becomes critical, helping transform packaging from a compliance exercise into a catalyst for growth.”

Mono-material Sticks, Tubes, & More

Likewise, Viva has extensive experience combining mono-material structures with high-impact decoration, including in-mold labeling, water-transfer decoration, vacuum metallization, premium spray finishes, soft-touch effects, and other decorative techniques.

Gaudun says Viva’s range of mono-material PP sticks, tubes, applicators, closures, and refillable jar systems gives brands ample opportunity to pursue a more streamlined material structure while still achieving the distinctive, premium packaging they need for the visual impact that will differentiate their products.

Viva’s latest mono-material brand collaboration was with Cheeky Aluminum-Free Deodorant, and highlights how packaging can become an extension of a brand’s identity rather than simply a container for the product. 

Viva provided the company with an oval 2.65-oz mono-material PP wide deodorant stick. The package features in-mold label (IML) decoration on both the barrel and cap. This creates a seamless, integrated appearance across the entire package. The wide format also provides a substantially larger decorating canvas than a traditional round or oval stick.

“The package was particularly well-suited to the brand. Its wide profile gave the packaging a strong role in the product’s visual identity,” Gaudun explains. “The anime-inspired graphics extend 360 degrees around the package, from the bottom of the barrel to the top. It creates a bold, continuous design. We color-matched the resin to the artwork, further integrating the package, decoration, and overall design.”

The Promise of Paper

A paper-based mono-material configuration can deliver structurally strong bones on a package’s front end and on its recycling back end. With Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations becoming a more significant part of packaging conversations, Wynalda Packaging has seen steady demand for 100% paper-based packaging over the past several years.

Kaelyn Van Wyhe, the company’s Lead Generation Specialist, says paper packaging has two distinct advantages. First, consumers easily recognize it as recyclable. Second, there’s a well-established collection and recycling infrastructure for many paper-based formats. “A well-designed paper-based package can keep the packaging components within the paper recycling stream,” she says. 

Beyond recyclability, paper and paper-based solutions like molded pulp, engineered paperboard or corrugated/fluted inserts (used as alternatives to thermoformed plastic or foam inserts) can offer significant design flexibility. “Brands can incorporate recycled content and reduce plastic while still achieving the structural performance, decoration and premium presentation that are particularly important in beauty and personal care packaging.”

One solution Wynalda has seen particularly strong demand for recently is a rigid box with a molded pulp insert. Especially popular for the fragrance category, Van Wyhe says this combination provides the premium look and feel of a rigid box with a molded pulp interior designed to securely hold and protect the product, while keeping the packaging paper-based.

Wynalda Partnered with Dr. Squatch

Wynalda recently developed and produced a 100% paper-based rigid box and molded pulp packaging system for Dr. Squatch’s Cologne Discovery Pack, which Van Wyhe says demonstrates that sustainability and premium presentation do not have to be competing objectives. 

The presentation’s rigid chipboard box features a custom molded pulp insert engineered to securely hold and present the cologne products. The molded pulp insert is finished with a printed paperboard mask, which provides additional branding and decorative space.

The secondary packaging system consists of three paper-based components: chipboard, molded pulp, and paperboard. Van Wyhe says this configuration allows for the creation of a cohesive, 100% paper-based solution without relying on a traditional thermoformed plastic or foam insert.

The rigid box features an embossed paper wrap designed to recreate the distinctive texture found throughout Dr. Squatch’s broader packaging, helping the Cologne Discovery Pack maintain a strong connection to the brand’s visual identity.

Targeted hot foil stamping delivers an elevated, refined look while enabling the primary structural components of the package to remain paper-based. 

The Power of Plastics

There are few mediums that offer the design flexibility of plastic. This is especially true for mono-material packages made of PE, PP, or PET.  

HCT offers three mono-material color collections in its stock library. Each has unique characteristics that work together to create a cohesive family, while remaining fully recyclable. The first is the Pure Line and the Block Line in all PET. The second is all PP, and the third is all metal.

Additionally, several of the items within the company’s Nora Line are mono-material PP. “The complexion stick, wide format stick, and compact have the sleek rounded edges. Customers have come to know and love this look from the Nora Line. Plus, it has the added benefit of recyclability,” comments the company’s Denis Maurin, President, Innovation & Strategy. “At HCT, our sustainability principles are laid out within our 4R’s strategy: Reduce, Reuse, Replace, Recycle. Consistently innovating mono-material packaging for cosmetics plays a huge role in our well-rounded strategy.”

One of HCT’s more recent innovations is one of the only oval refillable and fully recyclable sticks on the market–the Oval Refillable Stick. “The intuitive refill system makes it extremely user-friendly. It’s comprised of mono-material PP,” Maurin says. “To delve further into sustainability, the refill component can be made from PHA and paper pulp, a 100% bio-sourced material.” 

Mono-Material Lipstick Cases

For brands seeking mono-material lipstick configuration, Allstar Packaging Corp. offers mono-material lipsticks in PET, PET PCR, PP, or PP PCR material in a 0.15 oz/4.5 g size.

Michelle Wu, the company’s Regional Sales Manager, says the patented design features a refillable inner tube option available in PET or PET PCR, providing brands with a uniquely eco-friendly choice.

Mono-material Airless Solutions & More

A major focus for APC Packaging, whose mono-material capabilities include packaging and components designed primarily around PP, PE, and PET, is simplifying traditionally complex beauty packaging. Pumps, droppers, and airless systems can contain multiple materials and make recycling more challenging. “By engineering these systems with fewer materials—or, where technically possible, predominantly one material family—we can help brands improve recyclability. But we maintain the performance and aesthetics expected in prestige beauty packaging,” says the company’s Rick Ponte, VP of Project Engineering.

APC’s mono-material solutions span jars, bottles, closures, airless packaging, droppers, tubes and dispensing components, and Ponte says the company is particularly excited about continuing to develop its mono-material dispensing systems, including its Mono-Material Dropper System and mono-material/refillable airless solutions.

“Traditional droppers can contain several different materials, including glass, elastomers, plastics, and other components,” he explains. “APC’s development approach is focuses on simplifying that construction while maintaining the controlled dispensing, product compatibility, and premium consumer experience beauty brands require.”

The company continues to expand its PP-based jars, bottles, and closures. Some options incorporate PCR content, allowing brands to combine simplified material construction with reduced use of virgin resin.

APC Collaborated with Origins

Origins recently worked with APC to develop a mono-material jar solution. The package utilizes a simplified material approach designed to support the brand’s sustainability objectives while maintaining the appearance, functionality, decoration, and consumer experience required for prestige skincare. 

“For skincare brands, packaging has to accomplish several objectives simultaneously: protect the formula, deliver the desired consumer experience, reinforce the brand’s visual identity, meet manufacturing requirements, and support increasingly important sustainability goals,” Ponte explains. “A mono-material or simplified-material package can help bring those objectives together.”

The goal, he continues, is not sustainability at the expense of performance. “APC’s approach is to engineer packaging where sustainability, functionality, aesthetics, manufacturability, and cost are considered together from the beginning of development,” Ponte says. “That is ultimately where we believe the beauty packaging market is heading.”

The Road Ahead

Package sustainability is no longer an “if” but a “how.” Conversations between brands and their packaging suppliers are happening earlier in the development process. And the questions asked by brands are deeper and more nuanced.  

“Beauty brands are no longer simply asking, ‘Do you have a sustainable package?’ They are asking much more specific questions. They want to know about material composition, recyclability, and more. They’re asking about PCR percentages, refillability, component separation, package weight, and end-of-life considerations,” says APC’s Ponte. “We are also seeing sustainability discussions much earlier in the development process. Instead of evaluating sustainability after a package has already been designed, more brands are establishing sustainability requirements at the beginning of a project.”

“What’s particularly interesting is the nature of the questions brands are asking,” agrees Pretium’s Huett. “More [brands] are seeking clarity around whether their current packaging qualifies as mono-material, how it aligns with recyclability expectations, and how evolving regulations or EPR programs may affect their packaging decisions. That tells us the conversation is maturing. It’s moving beyond simple sustainability claims toward a deeper understanding of packaging composition and end-of-life considerations.”

Viva’s Gaudun also notes that sustainability is increasingly being evaluated alongside design, product compatibility, sourcing, decoration, functionality, and cost. It’s not considered a stand-alone packaging objective because brands want solutions that work across all of these considerations.

“Rather than simply asking for a ‘sustainable package,’ brands are looking for packaging solutions that address specific challenges. But the package still has to deliver the performance and visual impact their products require,” she says.

And as brand curiosity climbs, relationships between packaging suppliers and brand partners will shine. “Packaging partners will be helping [brands] navigate that complexity with confidence. And brands will make decisions grounded in both sustainability goals and real-world packaging performance,” Huett concludes.