Unilever has chosen Malta for its first European launch, outside the UK and Ireland, of compressed cans for men’s and women’s deodorants.

The new cans – including Dove, Dove for Men, Sure, Sure for Men, Vaseline, Vaseline for Men and Lynx – last the same length of time as previous cans while using only 50 per cent of the propellant, turning them into half the size.

As a result, switching to the new can has tangible environmental benefits, including reducing the overall carbon footprint of the product by an average of 25 per cent per can. Across the selected brands, the new-look cans use, on average, 25 per cent less aluminium and, due to the smaller size, 53 per cent more cans fit onto a pallet.

George Borg from George Borg Ltd and Sean Portelli from V&F Portelli & Sons Ltd, local representatives of Unilever, said they believed this innovation represented a genuine shift in the way aerosol deodorants could be manufactured.

Furthermore, the fact that the brand chose Malta to launch these compressed deodorants spoke volumes in terms of Malta’s sustainability goals.

The new cans, a result of years of research, will allow Unilever to make positive progress towards two of its ambitious targets: halving the greenhouse gas impact of products across the lifecycle by 2020 and halving the waste associated with the disposal of products by 2020.