Colgate rebuilt the toothpaste tube in one plastic, then had to teach recyclers to see it

The toothpaste tube is a recycling failure by design: conventional tubes laminate plastic and aluminum so nothing can separate them, and an estimated 20 billion a year go to the trash. Colgate spent five years of R&D on a one-plastic tube — #2 HDPE, the material of milk jugs — recognized by the Association of Plastic Recyclers in 2019. Colgate then opened the technology to competitors, because one recyclable tube among billions of laminated ones changes nothing; rivals including Unilever followed. Colgate moved roughly 200 SKUs onto the new tube before litigation began in 2023.

The second problem was recognition. Technically recyclable means nothing if the optical sorters at materials recovery facilities can't tell a mono-material HDPE tube from a laminated one. So when the tube reached the US in February 2022, it arrived shouting: 'Recycle Me!' packaging with dynamic limited-edition graphics, designed by Design Bridge New York and shortlisted at D&AD 2022 in Packaging Design, built awareness 'not only among consumers, but also the operators of the Materials Recovery Facilities that sort plastic' — Colgate's own description of the audience.

Colgate was candid about the gap it was bridging: tube recycling needed a 'critical mass of tubes on shelf that meet recycling standards', and during the transition, 'acceptance of tubes at certain recycling facilities may be limited.' Testing by Illinois recycler LRS showed the tubes can technically pass through its facility because optical sorters differentiate mono-material HDPE from multimaterial tubes — the engineering works. But a WM representative said in 2022 that tubes were not on its accepted list, and Bloomberg concluded that billions of tubes still defied the recycling system.

The gap turned legal. In August 2023 three consumers sued over 'recyclable tube' and chasing-arrows claims on Colgate and Tom's of Maine toothpaste, citing the FTC Green Guides' rule that recyclability claims require access for at least 60% of consumers. In February 2024 Judge Joseph Spero refused to throw the case out, ruling a reasonable consumer might be misled and that a 'check locally' note on the outer carton wasn't enough. Discovery now targets the sorters themselves: WM and Republic Services face subpoenas.

Recyclable is worthless unless the sorter recognizes it

Mono-material HDPE rides the most-scaled plastic recycling stream in existence, so the tube needs no new infrastructure — only recognition by the equipment already installed.

Open-sourcing the design was the demand-side fix: a 'critical mass' of recyclable tubes on shelf is what makes sorters and municipalities adapt their rules.

The Recycle Me! packaging treated the sorting facility as part of the audience, because a recyclable product that sorters can't identify gets landfilled all the same.

Colgate accepted short-term reputational risk — advertising a benefit the system can't yet deliver everywhere — to pull the transition deadline closer.

Engineering the product is half the job; engineering its adoption by the surrounding system is the other half. Colgate solved the materials problem but couldn't decree the recycling infrastructure.

The class action (Weingartner et al. v. Colgate-Palmolive, N.D. Cal., filed August 2023) survived dismissal in February 2024: Judge Joseph Spero ruled a reasonable consumer might be misled, and a 'check locally' note on the outer carton wasn't enough. Plaintiffs say only a minuscule number of consumers can recycle the tubes curbside. In September 2026 the court set a jury trial for April 10, 2028, with subpoenas planned for MRF operators including WM and Republic Services. Meanwhile mono-material HDPE has become the industry direction.