Often changing your packaging to be more environmentally responsible can be part of a much bigger project.

Alphapharm ran a massive project to increase their tablet line throughput and were able to incorporate an element that improved their pack recyclability into the same project. For this project it combined both Child Resistant caps and matching flat caps depending on the end product being packed.

The current cap was the Cormack 28 mm CR3 that has always been a talc filled cap. Since the original launch of Child Resistant caps, the technology back then (mid 90’s) of both resin manufacturers and tool manufacturers required the addition of talc to provide a good level of stress resistance. This stress resistance can be caused by actives in the filled product particularly for liquids, and also where capping forces are not well controlled, and caps are being massively over torqued on application.

With the latest random copolymer PP resins and advances in current tool making, the need for Talc in new tools has been removed. As the addition of Talc is viewed as rendering PP unrecyclable, the use of non-filled talc in these new 33 jump molded child resistant caps Alphapharm selected for this project has meant that the new caps are now fully recyclable after opening and use.

You won’t find these caps on the retail shelf as they are behind the counter in chemists given the need for them to be prescribed by Chemists, so we do view this as still another retail product that improves the sustainability of the total pack. Well done to the team at Alphapharm for selecting the non-talc filled Cormack 33 jump molded CR caps.