Replacing the metal base of the Pringles tube with a paper one took €100m of investment in R&D in Europe. The redesigned pack can now be collected with paper and cardboard in more European countries than the version it replaces.
The Pringles tube has been made largely of paper since the 1960s, but the base was steel. That mix of materials made the pack harder to sort, and in several European countries it was directed to residual waste rather than paper collection.
The redesigned tube has a paper base. The plastic lid remains, because it keeps the product fresh and lets consumers reclose the pack, and it is collected separately in schemes that accept it.
The difficulty was sealing the redesigned paper base to the tube. A paper base must close the tube tightly enough to protect the crisps and hold a 15-month shelf life. Developing the technology took close to five years, led by engineering and R&D teams in Mechelen, Belgium, working with packaging supplier Sonoco, and was backed by investment of more than €100 million in redesign and manufacturing in Belgium and Poland.
Recyclability has been assessed by third-party testing following the CEPI protocol, alongside sortation assessments. An assessment across a sample of nine EU countries in 2026 found the paper-base tube can be collected for recycling in all nine, whereas the previous metal-base version would have gone to residual waste in four.*
The tube reached Belgium in May 2023 and the UK and Netherlands in January 2024, followed by Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark with the rollout continuing across Europe.
* Collection systems differ between and within countries, so consumers should follow local recycling instructions.
