Plastic Free Supplement Packaging Explained
When we started making supplements, packaging was never going to be an afterthought. We care about what goes inside the capsule — single active ingredients, no flowing agents, no fillers, made by hand in our Leicestershire facility — and it would have been odd to then wrap all of that in unnecessary plastic. So we thought packaging through properly, and we are still thinking it through. This post explains what we actually use, why, and where the honest trade-offs are.
Why plastic free supplement packaging is genuinely difficult
Supplements are not the easiest category to package without plastic. Tea can often work well in simple paper formats because the product is dry, stable and forgiving. Supplements can be more demanding. Certain powders draw in moisture and clump if the barrier is insufficient. Some ingredients are sensitive to light or air. Capsules need protection from humidity. And everything needs to travel safely through the post, sit in a cupboard for months, and open reliably every morning.
This is the reason the supplement industry has long relied on plastic tubs and bottles — they are convenient, durable and cheap to produce at scale. We understand why. We have just decided to find better answers where we can, and to be honest where we have not yet.
What we actually use and why
Aluminium tins
Our primary supplement packaging is a reusable aluminium tin. Aluminium can be recycled indefinitely without quality loss, and ours are designed to be refilled. When you order a refill, it arrives in a paper pouch rather than another tin. Over time, that means significantly less material per order — the tin does its job once, properly, and carries on doing it.
Aluminium also provides excellent protection against light, air and moisture, which matters for keeping capsules consistent across a full tin. It is robust enough to handle kitchen life, stacks neatly, and has a reassuring weight and quality to it that feels right for a product made with that level of care.
100% paper refill pouches
Our refill pouches are made from 100% paper — no plastic lining, no composite layer. They are designed to be a lower-impact option for customers who already have a tin and simply need a refill. They are also where we get to say something that not many supplement brands can: the label is not a separate adhesive sticker applied on top. We print directly onto the pouch itself using our own in-house printing setup. No peel-off backing, no adhesive waste, no extra layer of material.
Direct printing also means the information is always clean and legible rather than a label that lifts, creases or falls off in a damp cupboard. It is a small detail, but it reflects the same thinking we apply to formulation — keep what is necessary, remove what is not.
PE-lined kraft paper pouches for air-sensitive products
Some of our products — including air-sensitive ingredients like wheatgrass and other delicate whole food powders — need a stronger barrier to stay fresh. For these we use PE-lined kraft paper pouches. The kraft paper outer gives the pack a clean, natural look and feel; the PE liner provides the moisture and oxygen barrier the product needs to stay in good condition.
These pouches are not home compostable, and we do not pretend otherwise. The honest disposal route is a supermarket flexible plastic collection point, which accepts this format alongside carrier bags and other soft plastics. Most major UK supermarkets have these collection points at their entrances. We include that guidance on the packaging rather than leaving customers to guess.
We also print labels for these pouches in-house, meaning everything that goes onto the pack is produced and applied by our own team in Leicestershire rather than outsourced to a separate labelling operation.
Printing directly onto packaging — and why it matters
One thing we are proud of, and that rarely gets mentioned in supplement discussions, is that we print directly onto our paper pouches rather than applying separate adhesive labels. That removes an entire layer of material from the process — the backing paper behind a peel-off label, the adhesive itself, and the logistics of applying labels as an additional production step.
It also means the pouch arrives looking exactly as intended. There is no label curl, no residue if you choose to remove it, and no question about whether the label material is recyclable separately from the pouch. The whole thing is one material, printed and ready.
For our PE-lined pouches, we print and apply labels in-house using the same approach. Everything is handled by our team, which means tighter quality control and no external labelling waste in the supply chain.
No plastic free supplement packaging is perfect — here is where the trade-offs sit
We think it is more useful to say this plainly than to present a polished packaging story that glosses over the reality.
Aluminium tins, while infinitely recyclable, require energy to produce and to recycle. Paper pouches rely on sourcing decisions further up the supply chain that we do not fully control. PE-lined pouches, despite having a clear recycling route via collection points, still contain plastic. If a customer throws one in general waste rather than taking it to a supermarket, that route is missed.
What we can say is that every format we use has been chosen deliberately for the product it protects. We have not applied one packaging solution across the board because different products have genuinely different requirements. And we have tried to make disposal as clear as possible on each pack, because the best packaging in the world makes no difference if nobody knows what to do with it at the end.
How to get the most out of our packaging at home
A few practical notes worth knowing.
The aluminium tins are designed to be kept. Once you have one, each subsequent order arrives as a paper refill pouch — less material, lower footprint, same product inside. You can order the tin and the refill pouch separately from the same product page.
Paper pouches are best stored in a cool, dry place away from steam and direct light. They are not as impervious to moisture as a rigid tin, so a shelf above the hob or a damp utility room is not ideal.
PE-lined pouches can be folded and taken to a supermarket flexible plastic collection point alongside carrier bags and plastic film. They do not need to be rinsed, but they should be reasonably empty and dry.
If you have questions about any of our packaging choices — or suggestions for where we could do better — we genuinely welcome them. We are a small, family-run team and packaging is an ongoing conversation for us, not a fixed answer.
Where this fits in the wider picture
Packaging is one part of how we try to make supplements that feel considered all the way through. The same thinking that leads us to make capsules with only active ingredients — no flowing agents or fillers — leads us to ask the same questions of the container. We are Soil Association certified organic and SALSA accredited — independently audited standards that cover how ingredients are stored, handled and processed. The packaging is part of that same chain of care.
If you want to understand more about how our supplements are formulated, our posts on additive-free supplements and why we make everything in-house cover the detail. And our broader post on plastic-free packaging across our full range — including teas and whole foods — explains how we approach the rest of the product line.
We do not claim to have solved sustainable supplement packaging. We do claim to have thought about it carefully, chosen formats that suit each product honestly, and made disposal as straightforward as we can. That is what plastic free supplement packaging means to us — not a blanket promise, but a genuine set of choices made by the people who make the products.
