Packaging at Kenvue is a critical component in delivering safe, effective, and accessible consumer health products to millions around the world.
As part of our Healthy Lives Mission, Kenvue is cutting down on virgin plastic and scaling smarter material choices where possible across our diverse portfolio and help drive measurable change.
Several Kenvue brands are leading the charge. In China, the skin health and beauty brand Dabao® has reduced the weight of many of its plastic bottles, effectively avoiding the use of more than 120 metric tons of plastic.
Here are seven ways Kenvue is driving sustainable progress through innovative packaging and plastic reduction efforts.
1. Setting pragmatic goals across the portfolio
Kenvue has set targets in line with industry guidance and standards when it comes to reducing virgin plastic use and improving recyclability across its global packaging portfolio:
- 100% recyclable1 or refillable2 packaging3 by 20254
- 25% reduction of virgin plastic5 in packaging3 by 20254 (from a 2020 base year)
- 50% reduction of virgin plastic5 in packaging3 by 20304 (from a 2020 base year)
2. Embedding the “Four Rs” into every design
Kenvue follows a circular approach, looking at a product’s impact across every single aspect of the global value chain. Our Sustainable Plastic Packaging Design principles are built on the “Four Rs”:
- Reduce: Optimize packaging through improving material efficiency, new format innovation and rightsizing
- Replace: Select recycled and renewable materials, and remove non-recyclable materials
- Reuse: Innovate and scale reusable and refill-ready primary packaging
- Recover: Design all packaging to be “recycle-ready ”—meaning it is easy to recycle in most recycling systems
3. Innovating to reduce
Globally, our redesigned OGX® Beauty shampoo and conditioner bottles now include 100% post-consumer recycled (PCR) materials. They’re designed for better squeezability to help consumers get more product out of the packaging, with resized cap orifices that cut down on waste and improve closure. Additionally, the entire product line has a reduced carbon footprint thanks to changes in both packaging and formulation.
4. Replacing non-recyclable materials
As part of Kenvue’s commitment to replacing non-recyclable materials with recyclable and renewable packaging, Zyrtec® transitioned from a clamshell design to paper in 2024, eliminating approximately 152,000 pounds of plastic annually. While Nicorette® (not sold in the U.S.) transitioned its secondary packaging from a clamshell design to a recyclable paper carton and box. Notably, the redesign of the Nicorette® Lozenge Icy Mint 2mg (80 count) reduced its total product carbon footprint (measured in grams of CO2 equivalent) by 17% compared to the previous version of the product.
5. Leaning into reusable packaging
In Latin America, Johnson’s® Baby launched its shampoo and bath products in refillable pouches. The packaging was redesigned using mono-material polyethylene to improve recyclability, moving away from harder-to-recycle materials.
6. Optimizing for enhanced recycling
Kenvue now supports both mechanical and advanced recycling approaches. Advanced recycling (also known as chemical recycling) breaks plastics into basic monomer building blocks, which can then be blended with virgin polymers to create new products.
Unlike traditional mechanical recycling, which shreds and remolds materials, advanced recycling works at the molecular level. Kenvue believes both methods can be part of its materials strategy to reduce waste and increase reuse.
7. Developing forward-leaning partnerships
In 2024, our brand, Codral®, worked with Australian pharmacy chain Chemist Warehouse and waste management company Pharmacycle to launch the country’s largest recycling initiative around blister packs, a common form of packaging made from plastic, paperboard, and a layer of aluminum foil.
To date, the program has diverted more than 7.5 million blister packs—roughly 11 metric tons—from landfills, repurposing them into materials for steelmaking and outdoor products like decking and fencing.
For Kenvue, collaboration is a key component of its commitment to scaling packaging circularity globally:
- Since 2020, the company has been a signatory to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s (EMF) Global Plastics Commitment, which aims to unite businesses, governments, nonprofits and investors around a common vision of a circular economy for plastics.
- Kenvue is an investor in Closed Loop Partners’ Infrastructure Group, which provides below-market rate loans to finance projects that build circular economy infrastructure in the U.S.
- Kenvue is also a signatory to The Business Coalition for a Global Plastics Treaty, which represents more than 250 businesses, financial institutions and nonprofits across the plastics value chain.
From redesigning materials to reshaping mindsets, Kenvue is showing what packaging progress really looks like. While the work is ongoing, the direction is clear: optimization, accountability and impact at scale.