Carlsberg glues its six-packs together — Snap Pack cuts multipack plastic by 76%

Carlsberg's beer multipacks came wrapped in plastic rings and shrink wrap, a visible symbol of the ocean-plastic problem. Under its 'Together Towards ZERO' sustainability programme, the group wanted packaging that cut plastic dramatically without changing the drinking or recycling experience.

Replace plastic rings and shrink wrap on multipacks with dots of a recyclable glue — cans snap apart by hand but survive transport, and nothing extra goes to landfill.

Three years of development with KHS partner companies and roughly 4,000 glue formulations produced the Snap Pack: small dots of a rubber-like recyclable glue bond cans together, with a handle kept because consumer research demanded one. Unveiled in Copenhagen in September 2018, it first reached UK shelves as 6x330ml Carlsberg Export packs at Tesco, launched alongside a Little Mermaid sculpture built entirely from Snap Pack cans.

Snap Pack cuts plastic in multipacks by up to 76%; fully rolled out, Carlsberg says it removes more than 1,200 tonnes of plastic waste a year — the equivalent of 60 million plastic bags. The glue stays on the cans and does not affect recycling, and the design was called a world first for the beer industry.

In September 2018 Carlsberg unveiled the Snap Pack in Copenhagen: a beer multipack held together by small dots of a rubber-like recyclable glue instead of plastic rings or shrink wrap. The group called it a world first for the beer industry and said it would cut the plastic in traditional multipacks by up to 76%.

The hard part was the glue itself. Working with companies owned by KHS, Carlsberg spent three years and tested around 4,000 glue formulations before finding a mix strong enough to survive the trip from brewery to supermarket to home, yet easy enough for a customer to snap apart by hand. Consumer research also showed the pack had to keep its handle, so that stayed.

The first Snap Pack cans — 6x330ml Carlsberg Export — reached Tesco stores in the UK on 10 September 2018. When fully implemented across all four-, six- and eight-packs in every Carlsberg market, the innovation removes more than 1,200 tonnes of plastic a year, about 60 million plastic bags. The glue remains on the cans after drinking and does not affect recycling.

Carlsberg marked the launch with a version of Copenhagen's Little Mermaid statue built entirely from Snap Pack cans, a 'canstruction' that turned the packaging innovation itself into the brand statement.

Rather than making plastic rings thinner or greener, Carlsberg removed them from the equation entirely and redesigned how cans hold together.

The brief respected every consumer constraint — transport strength, easy opening, a handle — so the sustainable choice cost the drinker nothing.

The glue was engineered for the recycling stream: it stays on the can and tests showed it does not interfere with recycling.

Launching with a public sculpture made of the new packs turned a supply-chain change into something people could see and photograph.

Question the assumed material, not just its shape: when plastic rings seem unavoidable, glue that bonds cans does the job — transport, easy opening and recycling become the design brief.

The Snap Pack rolled out across Carlsberg's markets as part of 'Together Towards ZERO'. By 2024, Carlsberg Marston's reported the complete elimination of plastic rings from all its UK 4- and 6-can multipacks, using Snap Pack glue-dot technology alongside KK Clips paperboard alternatives, with Snap Pack capacity expanded at its Northampton brewery — proof that a packaging experiment could become the industry-standard default.