Green Toothpaste Tubes and the New Antitrust Fight: Essay

For decades there was no way to recycle empty toothpaste tubes. Every minute about 38,000 of them ended up as trash, dumped in landfills or incinerators around the world.

Then, around 12 years ago, executives at Colgate-Palmolive Co. set about trying to end that waste. Their challenge was that the tubes, a mix of aluminum and various plastics, were too complex to affordably recycle. So Colgate designed a simpler tube made from high-density polyethylene, commonly used to make milk bottles.

But redesigning the tubes was only the first step. Colgate also began sharing the technology with its rivals. The ...