Decathlon unveils new skincare stick applicators made with recycled plastic

Amcor has produced a skincare stick applicator for sports brand Decathlon, using recycled plastic sourced from Amcor’s proprietary CleanStream® technology.

The choice of Amcor’s 25 ml stick reflects Decathlon’s commitment to reducing its carbon footprint. With 87% rPP, each applicator offers a 17% lower CO2 impact versus virgin resin. As the stick applicators are mono-material, they are also recycle-ready and can be recycled where the appropriate infrastructure is in place.

Laurent Dujardin, product & pack engineer, Health & Sports Accessories at Decathlon, says: Our customers want a quality product that they can easily use on the move, so the stick format is ideal. We challenged ourselves to also provide a more sustainable option that would still deliver the high performance.

As a brand, Decathlon is committed to reducing absolute Scope 1, 2 and Scope 3 GHG emissions by 42% by 2030, compared to the 2021 base year. The use of CleanStream aligns with this goal. The proprietary technology mechanically recycles household polypropylene (PP) waste into high-quality recycled plastic suitable for contact-sensitive applications – using automated identification, sorting and decontamination to achieve the quality of polymer required.

The format is being used by Decathlon for two products, an anti-chafing stick and a sunscreen stick. The anti-chafing stick was designed by a team of athletes. A key consideration was for the product to be easy to apply without the user getting their hands dirty, as well as the pack being small and easy to carry.

The same logic applies to the SPF50+ sunscreen stick, which is water and sweat-resistant to suit sportspeople. Amcor’s stick offers a wide surface area that enables the consumer to quickly and efficiently apply the product contents, while being small enough for easy transport.

Marine Sueur, sales director, France at Amcor, said: The ability to include rPP through our proprietary CleanStream technology means we can offer brands like Decathlon the perfect combination of convenience, performance and environmental responsibility.

This article was originally published by Amcor.