For us, being committed to nature is about so much more than carefully choosing each ingredient and fragrance we use in our products. We’re also dedicated to finding better, more sustainable ways to build a circular plastic economy, trying not to create single use plastics. Learn more.
Wherever we can, we create packaging that can be reused, recycled and repurposed for as long as possible. That means we often use transparent plastic bottles, because they can be reused in more ways than coloured ones. It’s all part of our dedication to nature and our beautiful planet.
Our plastic bodywash bottles are made from either PET or HDPE.
We use PET plastic for our transparent bottles because it’s a really strong material that’s completely recyclable. In fact, it’s the most widely recycled plastic in the world! Currently, we use 30% recycled PET plastic in these bottles, but we’re committed to going even further in the future to cut down on using new – also called virgin – plastic.
In the future, we’d like to use 100% recycled plastic in our transparent bottles. As part of this initiative we’re working with plastics manufacturers, providers and also the recycling industry to make sure our plastic packaging can be easily recycled and also re-recycled. Because transparent PET has more uses once it's recycled, we don’t add any colour to it. This means that our transparent PET plastic bottles can be made into new plastic bottles more often.
PET is one of the most widely recycled types of plastic across Europe. You can identify it by looking at the bottom of the bottle. It’ll have a triangle symbol with a number “1” moulded into the plastic. Bottles made from recycled PET are just as robust as those made from virgin PET, but they just have a higher percentage of recycled material. This quite often results in a slight discolouration of the plastic bottle, which is why they may look slightly greyish.
Our white bottles have been made with High-Density Polyethylene, also known as HDPE. This is a type of resin that’s often used in plastic bottles and is one of the most commonly used materials in cosmetic packaging. This is because it’s really strong and resistant to moisture and chemicals. HDPE plastic is also widely collected and recycled across Europe. You can identify HDPE by looking at the bottom of the bottle. It’ll have a triangle symbol with a number “2” moulded into the plastic.
Previously, black HDPE was difficult to sort during the recycling process because of the black colouring (masterbatch) that was used in the plastic. We’ve now introduced what’s called a “detectable masterbatch”, which means it’s much easier to sort from other coloured plastics and can be recycled more.
At Palmolive, we believe that plastic does not belong in the environment, so we’re following strict design and manufacturing guidelines to promote the whole recycling process.
Empty any liquid left in your Palmolive bottle
Put the bottle, with its cap on, into your plastics recycling bin or sack for collection
These plastic bottles are recycled in the PET plastic bins. This makes it even easier to do your bit.
What to do with your body wash bottles that have a pump?
At the moment, you can’t recycle our dispenser pumps, but you can recycle the bottle. When your Palmolive bottle is empty, pop it in your plastics recycling bin or sack for collection. You can throw the pump away with your regular trash or, better yet, reuse it in another bottle.
As part of our commitment to nature, we’ve created a range of body wash and liquid hand soap refills.
These use less plastic per ml than our standard brand bottles, and you can also recycle them when they’re empty. They’re made mostly of mono-PE (Polyethylene), which is one of the most recycled plastics in Europe.
Our refills are really handy to top up your favourite dispensers or old plastic bottles at home, while helping to respect the environment by reducing plastic waste.
Today not all European countries collect and sort flexible packaging and therefore unfortunately it cannot be recycled everywhere.
Squeeze out any leftover liquid from the pouch
Pop it into your recycling bin or sack for collection
These plastic pouches are recycled in the Polyethylene (PE) plastic bins. This makes it even easier to do your bit.
Unfortunately, flexible plastic packaging like this refill pouch isn’t widely collect for recycling in your country. If this sort of plastic is collected in your area, simply squeeze out any leftover liquid from your pouch, put the cap back on the pop it into your plastics recycling bin or sack.
Unfortunately, only PET bottles and plastic bottles made from PE and PP are widely recycled across Switzerland. That means that you won’t be able to recycle our refill pouch in the usual way. There are, however, some local initiatives for this type of plastics collection and recycling. You can check if these are available in your area by visiting swissrecycling.ch/de/home. If one of these services is not available in your area, please throw your refill pouch away in your regular waste bin.
We’ve developed a special sugarcane tube for our Palmolive Up! body washes that you can recycle, except in Switzerland. Instead of using plastic created from fossil fuels, we’ve used sugarcane plastic that comes from renewable sources. You probably won’t notice any difference in the packaging, but you’ll be happy to know it has less of an impact on the environment!
Our sugarcane tubes are made from plants that come from Brazilian agricultural land, and only 0.02%* of this land is used to produce bioplastics. The plant is mainly grown in the southwest of Brazil, and a sugarcane tube has 19% less CO2 emissions than a regular PE bottle made from virgin plastic. You can recycle our sugarcane tubes when they’re empty in the same way you recycle PE bottles, because they have a similar technical property as oil based PE plastic.
*https://www.european-bioplastics.org/faq-items/how-much-agricultural-area-is-used-for-bioplastics/
Squeeze out any leftover liquid from the tube
Pop it into your recycling bin or sack for collection
These plastic tubes are recycled in the Polyethylene (PE) plastic bins. This makes it even easier to do your bit.
Our liquid hand soap bottles are made from PET and recycled PET plastic.
You might notice that our transparent bottles made from recycled PET plastic are slightly greyish. This is what is what happens during the recycling process, but we don’t use colourants to cover it up. If we did this, the bottles wouldn’t have as many uses once they go back into the recycling stream.
Every month and year we’re working hard to achieve a perfect circular plastics economy, but we’ve still got more to do. As time passes, we get a little better at it, for us, for you and our wonderful earth.
Unfortunately, at the moment you can’t recycle our dispenser pumps. You can, however, recycle our bottles. And it’s super easy to do:
Empty your liquid hand soap bottle
Pop the bottle into your plastics recycling bin or sack for collection
Throw the pump into your regular trash or, better yet, reuse it in another bottle!
We try to be as sustainable as possible, which is why we’ve created a recyclable paper wrapper made from whole wood pulp for our soap bars. This packaging has been carefully developed to stand up to the challenges that soap products face, like moisture, friction and exposure of the product contents to the packaging.
Simply take your bar soap out of its paper wrapper
Pop the wrapper into your paper recycling bin or sack for collection
Follow us on
Products by benefit
Products by fragrance
You are viewing the British site > Select local website
2025 Colgate-Palmolive Company. All rights reserved.
