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Protein Powder Tub

2kg tub with scoop

195
g
Total plastic weight

The tub is one of the better recyclable formats here, but the scoop and seal are not, and most tubs are half empty by volume when sold.

30%
Recycle probability
450
Years to decompose
Protein Powder Tub

Material breakdown

3 components
  • HDPE tub and lid170g
  • Scoop15g
  • Induction seal and label10g
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Production footprint

Per unit
1.95L
Water to produce
0.59kWh
Electricity to produce

Estimated upstream manufacturing footprint per unit, based on resin LCA averages.

Lower-impact alternatives

  • Refill pouch into a kept tub
    Cuts packaging by roughly three quarters.
    45g
    plastic
  • Bulk paper sack from a refill shop
    Decanted at home, no tub.
    0g
    plastic
  • Reuse the tub for storage
    Second life before recycling.
    0g
    plastic
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References for this item

Peer-reviewed studies and institutional reports behind the figures above.

  • Degradation Rates of Plastics in the Environment
    Chamas, A., Moon, H., Zheng, J., Qiu, Y., Tabassum, T., Jang, J. H., Abu-Omar, M., Scott, S. L. & Suh, S. (2020) · ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, 8(9), 3494–3511

    Open-access review that harmonises plastic degradation studies into a specific surface degradation rate, giving half-lives from 58 years for an HDPE bottle to 1,200 years for thick HDPE pipe. Peer-reviewed basis for how our decomposition windows scale with wall thickness and format.

  • Ranking environmental degradation trends of plastic marine debris based on physical properties and molecular structure
    Min, K., Cuiffi, J. D. & Mathers, R. T. (2020) · Nature Communications, 11, 727

    Ranks PE, PP, PET, PS, PVC and nylon by measured degradation susceptibility and shows that thickness, crystallinity and additives shift estimated lifetimes by one to two orders of magnitude. Backs our practice of scaling persistence by format rather than by polymer alone.

  • Monitoring polymer degradation under different conditions in the marine environment
    Beltrán-Sanahuja, A., Casado-Coy, N., Simó-Cabrera, L. & Sanz-Lázaro, C. (2020) · Environmental Pollution, 259, 113836

    Field study exposing PET, LDPE, HDPE, PP and PS in seawater, sediment and beach sand for nine months; conventional polymers lost under a few percent of their mass. Direct measured evidence for the very slow marine degradation behind our long persistence windows.

  • Alteration and progressive degradation of plastic waste in a Polish operational landfill analysed over 60 years
    Redko, V., Wolska, L., Cieślak-Piotrowicz, A. et al. (2024) · Communications Earth & Environment, 5, 563

    Excavated polyethylene bags and film buried for up to six decades in a working landfill and found only partial surface oxidation, not disappearance. Real-world confirmation that landfilled film persists far beyond the lifetimes often quoted.

All sources & methodology →