“Pringles factor” coined to highlight poor designs for recycling
The packaging of Pringles snacks has been singled out as particularly poor in relation to recycling by the CEO of the UK’s Recycling Association. Simon Ellin said that the snack’s cardboard tube, with metal and plastic ends, exemplified a lack of attention to recyclability in design, dubbing this “the Pringles factor”. Bottles, such as those for Lucozade Sport, which contain a recycled centre in a plastic sleeve, were identified as too complex for computer scanners to process. Spray bottles for cleaning products that contained polymers and metal springs, black plastic food trays and metal in whisky packaging were also criticised.
Product designers need to retreat from “the Pringles factor” in order to make their packaging more recyclable, an environmental expert has said.

Simon Ellin, the chief executive of the Recycling Association, which represents recyclers, pointed to the snack tube as a prime example of the failure to consider recycling in design – and listed a range of other offenders from Lucozade Sport drinks to whisky packaging.

He spoke as round-the-world sailor Dame Ellen MacArthur launched a $2m (£1.5m) competition to reduce plastic waste and target the 30% of plastic packaging that cannot be recycled because of the way it is constructed.

Straws, shampoo sachets, crisp packets, coffee cup lids and food wrappers were all picked out by MacArthur as products that either could not be recycled because of the multiple layers of materials used, or were not traditionally recycled.

Ellin said the biggest problems came when multiple materials were used in the same packaging. In the case of Pringles, Ellin said: “What idiot designed this in terms of recyclability? We’ve got a cardboard tube, a metal bottom, a plastic lid.



A Pringles box with a cardboard tube, a metal bottom and a plastic lid. Photograph: PA

“The Pringles factor – right at the design stage, we’ve got to get that right. What we’re putting in our recycling bins has got to be recyclable. We’ve got to get away from the Pringles factor.”

Ellin was also critical of Lucozade Sport and bottles with a similar design, where a recyclable bottle is enclosed in a sleeve made from a different type of plastic. He called the design the “No 2 villain”.

“This bottle is so confusing to computer scanners that it has to be picked by hand off the recycling conveyor,” he said. “Then it often just gets chucked away.”

He also said cleaning products in spray bottles were misleading when they claimed to be recyclable because of the presence of other polymers and a metal spring. And he pointed out that the colouring that made some plastic food trays black – so red meat looks more appetising – made them “worthless”. He also said the metal in whisky packaging made it a problem for recycling.

MacArthur prepared to join the Prince of Wales in London on Thursday to launch the multimillion-pound competition to encourage the reduction of plastics in the world’s oceans.

She said the way plastics were used globally and the huge leakage into the environment amounted to a system that was not working.

The competition aims to inspire designers to create ways of reducing plastic packaging and make reusable products.

Globally, only 14% of plastic packaging is collected for recycling and by 2050 there could be more plastic than fish, MacArthur warned.

“If we want to change this, we must fundamentally rethink the way we make and use plastics,” she said. “We don’t believe at the moment the system works. Only 2% of plastic packaging gets recycled into the same quality material and 32% leaks into the environment. Then there is 30% which cannot be recycled at all and that is what this innovation project is about.”

MacArthur’s foundation is leading the promotion of the new plastics economy – in which all plastics are reused and recycled and not littered and left to leak into the oceans.

She believes producers of plastic packaging and brands which use it all need to be part of the solution.

Ellin is also critical of Lucozade Sport and bottles with a similar design, where a recyclable bottle is enclosed in a sleeve made from a different type of plastic. Photograph: Alamy

A Pringles spokesman said: “We take our responsibilities to the planet we all share seriously and are continuously working to improve our environmental performance.



“All parts of a Pringles can act as a barrier to protect the chips from environmental contamination and to keep them fresh. The freshness of our chips means a longer shelf life, which minimises food waste.”

Lucozade said it recognised its environmental responsibilities and had reduced its use of plastic in bottles by 540 tonnes over the last year. A spokesman added: “We welcome any technological breakthroughs that support this ambition.”