Cosmetics and personal hygiene primary plastic packaging dataset: Characterization of post-consumer waste returned via take-back system in Denmark

Cosmetics and personal hygiene packaging play a critical role in the transition to a circular economy. These products are widely used and are increasingly targeted by regulatory frameworks such as the European Union Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, which emphasizes design-for-recycling, take-back systems, and producer responsibility.

Due to their diverse packaging designs and product contents, cosmetics and personal hygiene packaging present challenges for recycling and end-of-life management. These products must appeal to consumers, while also enabling safe delivery of the cosmetic product during the products lifetime and intended use case. This work investigates how aesthetic elements and delivery mechanisms influence the recyclability of packaging, through a waste composition analysis of collected packaging design and composition, as well as the presence of residual cosmetic content. This data is crucial to address growing policy attention to packaging design for recycling, and providing detailed data on packaging types, formats, and residual contents in waste streams today. This dataset supports accurate forecasts for collection yields, recycling capacities and recyclability assessments, as well as ensuring efficient planning for sorting infrastructure, design improvements, and circular economy policy development for plastic cosmetics and personal hygiene packaging.

The dataset presented in this work, was generated from approximately 270 kg of post-consumer cosmetics and personal hygiene primary plastic packaging collected via a company-managed retail take-back system in Denmark. The packaging waste, collected from 72 retail stores, was analyzed between March and May 2025. The dataset encompasses 6.503 individual packaging samples systematically categorized according to a four-tiered characterization approach by product brand ownership, packaging format, product content, and container colour. Each packaging sample was also weighed in its original returned (wet) state and again after cleaning (dry condition) to quantify residual product contents.

The dataset is structured across three Excel sheets: (1) a coding scheme for packaging design, (2) a four-tiered characterization approach used to categorize the packaging samples, and (3) a main dataset containing raw measurements and statistical summaries, including means and standard deviations.

Researchers, policymakers, industry stakeholders, and sustainability experts can use this dataset to inform precise forecasting, mapping, and analysis of recycling potentials and design practices. Moreover, the structured methodological approach serves as a replicable framework for generating comparable datasets across various geographical contexts, thus supporting broader efforts in transitioning cosmetic and personal hygiene packaging toward circularity.