World Oral Health Day: Delivering better everyday oral health for people and the planet

Haleon today announced significant progress against its ambition to reduce the environmental impact of its toothpaste, with the adoption of a new manufacturing process and more sustainable packaging materials. 

To raise awareness of oral health inequalities globally and the importance of practising self-care this World Oral Health Day, Haleon recently invested in research by Economist Impact highlighting the state of oral health inclusivity and how it can be improved through investment and collective action.

Haleon has also partnered with the FDI World Dental Federation (FDI) to support its World Oral Health Day campaign for the second consecutive year. This partnership is central to Haleon’s ongoing efforts to equip dentists with the information they need to help people fully participate in their own everyday oral and overall health.  

Better for the planet

Haleon has identified several ways in which it can further reduce the environmental impact of its toothpaste which include:

Optimising production

Haleon is set to launch a more sustainable manufacturing process for several variants of its Sensodyne toothpaste. The new technique halves the time it takes to produce the toothpaste and significantly reduces water usage. Once fully implemented, Haleon expects the energy savings to be equivalent to the amount required to boil approximately 1.85 million full kettles of water per year. The first commercial batch using the new process has been produced at Haleon’s UK site, with plans to roll out the process internationally over time. 

Making toothpaste tubes recycle-ready

As part of its broader aim to make all packaging recyclable or reusable by 2030, where safety, quality and regulations permit, Haleon has surpassed its goal of producing one billion recycle-ready¹ toothpaste tubes, two years ahead of its original 2025 target. So far, 1.2 billion recycle-ready tubes have been rolled out - a milestone achievement on Haleon’s journey towards realising a circular economy for its product packaging. 

Further interventions are needed to confirm market acceptance of recyclable packaging and create more effective recycling systems. To enable this, Haleon is working with suppliers, peers, industry associations and the waste industry to drive global and local initiatives aimed at collecting, sorting and recycling packaging at scale. 

Reducing virgin-plastic

Haleon is also looking to swap out 700 million virgin plastic toothpaste caps across Europe for bio-resin versions made from waste products. Working together with suppliers Neste, Sabic, LyondellBasell, Sibo and Albéa, Haleon is aiming to eliminate about 2,000 tons of virgin plastic from the supply chain. Haleon plans to use learnings from the project across other geographies and categories as it continues to work towards its wider goal of reducing the use of virgin petroleum-based plastic by a third compared to 2022 by 2030. 

Creating a more sustainable oral health industry is a collaborative effort and these developments alone are not enough to drive meaningful change. To address the need for cross-industry cooperation, Haleon partnered with the FDI World Dental Federation to create a Consensus Statement² on sustainable dentistry. The paper marks the first global alignment between healthcare providers, industry, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to acknowledge the problem and agree on a path forward.

Better for people

As a global sponsor, Haleon is actively supporting the FDI’s latest campaign to mark World Oral Health Day. This campaign focuses on highlighting the urgent need for collective action to ensure universal access to oral health and its role in improving people’s overall health and wellbeing. 

Raising awareness of oral health inequalities

Haleon has supported Economist Impact’s white paper ‘Time to put your money where your mouth is: Addressing inequalities in oral health’, commissioned by the European Federation of Periodontology.³

The paper highlighted the significant burden of oral diseases, with nearly half of the world’s population impacted and over $500 billion of global expenditure spent on treatment of preventable oral non-communicable diseases a year.⁴

It revealed that the people from the most deprived socioeconomic groups bear the highest direct costs from dental caries (cavities and tooth loss) and have the most to gain from a more inclusive approach to oral health. The paper sets out a multi-pronged approach to do so and calls for stakeholders to take decisive action to improve the standard of oral health together.⁵

Empowering oral health professionals 

Haleon is also empowering oral health professionals with the information they need to support their patient’s needs and break down barriers to better everyday oral health.

One way Haleon achieves this is through the Haleon Health Partner portal, a platform offering a wide range of resources, education, practical tools and the latest news to over 460,000 oral health professionals globally. Join this growing community of professionals to access the latest information and resources to better support your patient’s needs by registering here.

Heather Pelier, Global Expert Lead, Oral Health, Haleon, said: “Haleon is proud to be partnering with the FDI in support of World Oral Health Day for the second year running. To deliver a more inclusive approach to health, we are partnering with like-minded organisations to combine the reach and therapeutic benefits of our category-leading oral health brands with efforts targeted at empowering people to take better preventative measures when it comes to oral health.’

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