Imagine this: you’re in the shower, you reach for a new bottle of shampoo and you crack it open, just like a soft drink.
The idea occurred to Nick Paget, co-founder and chief innovation officer at Meadow, a packaging technology company headquartered in Stockholm. While he couldn’t quite imagine a consumer going for that kind of a shampoo container, he was on to something. The result is the Kapsul technology – a new but familiar user experience that turns the ubiquitous aluminum can into a vessel for household products, such as shampoo or cleaning sprays, that is used along with a dispenser. “It’s still can enough where people put it in the recycling, but it’s not can enough where people think it’s a beverage,” Paget says.
The aluminum beverage can is one of the most recyclable packaging options available. It requires 95% less energy to produce recycled compared to new aluminum, according to European Aluminium, an industry association representing the entire aluminum value chain in Europe. Aluminum cans that are repeatedly recycled don’t suffer the same quality loss as other materials, such as plastic. On top of that, aluminum cans take only about 60 days to recycle for reuse.
“They’re really scalable. They’re available everywhere. People know how to recycle them. You don’t need to change human behaviour, which is always the hardest thing,” Paget says. “And the best thing is we don’t need to invent it.”
Meadow’s timing could be exactly right. As regulations in many countries tighten and companies bear more responsibility for the waste they create, Meadow’s solution is one that’s available, scalable, familiar and could help ease the transition to more recyclable materials while cutting costs. That is, if the systems and collective will are in place.
To reimagine the aluminum can for household products, Meadow removed the beverage can’s pull tab, and with it extra material needed for can production. The top of the can was redesigned so that the product inside wouldn’t be accidentally mistaken for a canned beverage and consumed. However, the overall can-ness still remains, Paget says, as beverage cans require such extreme precision so they don’t leak or explode, which is why aluminum manufacturing companies sometimes serve both packaging and aerospace markets.
The can then fits into a dispenser so that someone with the grip strength of an average 80-year-old woman could use it with ease, Paget says. The top of the dispenser changes depending on the product, such as a pump or a spray nozzle, and could be designed and branded. Once the product runs out, the idea is that the can is recycled and replaced by another aluminum can. “If you could turn off the tap,” he says, “why deal with the waste?” For Paget, it’s more efficient and exciting to deal with upstream innovation and prevent more waste from entering the system.
Circularity in motion
Europe is doubling down on its circular-economy leadership. The EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, which entered into force in February 2025, regulates what packaging is allowed in EU markets as well as waste-management and -prevention measures; for example, design requirements that reduce the amount of excess packaging, minimum amounts of recycled content for various types of plastic packaging and recycling targets for different materials.
Having a circular system assumes that waste will re-enter the system. But when it comes to relying on waste, “you need to have sufficient quality in a sufficient amount,” says Stig Irving Olsen, associate professor in the Department of Environmental and Resource Engineering at the Technical University of Denmark, whose research focuses on environmental assessments of products and systems. Turning aluminum beverage cans back into cans, instead of using mixed aluminum scrap, reduces impacts on the climate, according to a study co-authored by Olsen.
While there are general complexities when it comes to recycling aluminum cans, such as impurities from the decorative cover, there is no technical reason why companies using Meadow’s technology couldn’t be integrated into existing recycling systems, Paget says.
Simplifying the infrastructure
“What’s often missed is that you need an entire collection infrastructure,” says Clarissa Morawski, CEO of Reloop, an international non-profit working on waste reduction and promoting a circular economy. Recycling infrastructure needs more than just somewhere to collect packaging. It usually requires cooperation between many different players: companies, producers of packing materials, regulatory bodies, industry associations, retailers, collection services or sites and, of course, consumers who are willing to recycle.
“If you’re in the business of refill, and you’re putting a fleet of bottles, nice refillable containers, they are an asset,” Morawski says. “You’ve invested in them. Your business plan is based on getting it back, washing it, refilling it, getting it back out to the customer, and then scaling it up.”
Beyond Meadow, there are many examples of refillables being tested. In the United Kingdom, supermarket chains Aldi and Ocado completed a pilot project offering basic products in refillable containers, such as pasta, rice or washing liquids, that could be returned in-store or to a driver if groceries were delivered. Some beauty brands have in-store stations where customers can refill containers after the product is finished, often offered at a discounted price. Having incentives, such as discounts, can play an important role in the overall success of return rates.
Deposit return systems are one of the most effective ways to ensure that packaging is recycled. For example, in Sweden, consumers pay a deposit on plastic and aluminum beverage containers at checkout. When finished, shoppers can return the packaging to more than 3,100 grocery stores nationwide or at designated drop-off points for money or vouchers at the grocery store, or choose to donate the returns to charity. In 2024, Sweden had an 87.6% recycling rate for plastic and aluminum bottles, one of the highest return rates in the world. When recycling is easy for consumers, similar deposit-return systems have yielded similar results, so long as the deposit is worthwhile. In Canada, return rates jump from a median of 68% when the deposit is less than 10 cents to 92% when the deposit is 20 cents or more.
A shift in responsibility
Even if consumers are willing to participate, buy-in is needed from every recycling player at every step. For instance, Aldi deemed the refillables pilot an in-store success and had high return rates even without a deposit system. However, the company decided not to scale the solution, citing the inability to test it in multiple retailers. In Ontario, the Beer Store closures have meant the loss of many bottle collection sites and concerns about the future of the entire bottle deposit-return program. “All the intentions may be right, but if you don’t have the right collection system in place, you’re out of luck. You’re out of business,” Morawski says.
Even if a good collection system exists in one place, recycling regulations vary between jurisdictions. If a bottle of beer is sold in Oregon, the bottle must be returned in state. The same applies to Canadian provinces, countries in Europe and most other places you might travel with your otherwise recyclable waste. In Europe, the new EU packaging regulation outlines that its countries should do more to make deposit systems speak to each other but stops short of specifics, Morawski says. In places where there is a lot of cross-border travel, this could help improve recycling rates and prevent unnecessary waste.
All the intentions may be right, but if you don’t have the right collection system in place, you’re out of luck. You’re out of business.
– Clarissa Morawski, CEO, Reloop
While there are several examples of success and good intentions, new regulations could hasten the establishment of more effective systems. The EU packaging waste regulation outlines several stricter regulations, including that all member states establish deposit-return systems on plastic and metal beverage cans by 2029. The U.K. government’s extended producer responsibility for packaging will place the responsibility of paying for the collection, sorting and treatment of waste entirely on the producers. The Government of Canada has also issued a strategy on zero plastic waste. In other words, companies will soon have no choice but to deal with their waste.
Forward thinking about waste was also something Paget noticed and helped Meadow conceptualize as it was being founded back in 2020. It wasn’t just start-ups or tier-one companies; companies of all sizes are looking for these solutions, Paget says. To ensure that its technology is readily available to companies, Meadow established partnerships along its value chain, such as with Ball Corporation, which holds more than 30% of the aluminum can market in North America, Europe and South America; Novelis, the world leader in aluminum rolling and recycling; and Fillsy, a manufacturing factory in Poland.
When it comes to getting customers to adopt a refillable model, Paget points out that packaging fails when it tries to become the product. For example, compare the experience of using a travel coffee mug with using a paper one. “Does anyone really love the experience of drinking through a plastic lid with a tiny hole in it and your coffee tastes like paper?” Paget says. Consumers have already shown that they are willing to pay for a better design and product experience, if the recent massive annual sales of some refillable drinkware companies are any indication.
What Meadow hopes to do is to bring that same consumer behaviour to household products while reducing waste. Use aluminum for the refillable portions so it can be repeatedly recycled. Use plastic or other strong materials for the dispenser, which should last for a long time and not break when you drop it in your shower. Paget now knows that aluminum has place in the shower — and it takes Meadow’s innovation to crack open the can.
Ashley Perl is a Canadian freelance journalist based in Stockholm.
