How packaging can be renewed for more sustainability

Photo: Firmbee/Unsplash

Companies can use many strategies to make their packaging more sustainable. Reuse is one way. Renewing the design and switching to renewable raw materials is another. But which one makes more sense and when?

Renew or Reuse? For many companies, this question is not easy to answer when choosing their packaging. At least this remains clear: Reuse means reusing the packaging without recycling it - a solution that would deserve 4 out of 5 stars in any case. At best, it would only be better to do without packaging altogether. But (as we have shown in our article) that may not work in many cases either, especially in a rapidly growing online business.

Renew, on the other hand, means improving non-reusable packaging through design in such a way that its ecological footprint is reduced - for example, by relying on renewable raw materials. At first glance, the prioritization of the two variants seems pretty clear: Reuse obviously comes before Renew as far as the sustainability aspect is concerned. If there weren't a few restrictions. In the B2C sector, for example, the length of the transport route until a package can be refilled and the availability or non-availability of collection systems. 'In the B2B sector, on the other hand, Reuse packaging or containers have already become established in many areas, because frequently recurring customers are supplied, the containers can be collected and returned relatively easily. There is currently also an European initiative to track these large containers - also in the food sector - and to keep them in circulation via certified cleaning and transport routes', explains Peter Désilets.

If these conditions are met, Reuse not only works for the beer bottle, but also for highly complex components in the automotive industry, for example. Two figures show just how great the positive impact can be: Around 75% of CO2 emissions are caused by the operation of vehicles, for which the automotive sector is responsible, but almost 20% are caused by the supply chain alone. These figures will fall significantly in the next few years with the increase in alternative drive systems such as electric or hydrogen. Two statements from a glass network day in November 2021 show how differently this outlook is received, where Peter Désilets states, 'While in the morning the fear was discussed that the CO2 price per ton should preferably not rise above €25, in the evening we heard the casual statement in response to our suggestion of new reusable systems: "If the production of glass is CO2 neutral in the future, it will no longer make any difference whether we use disposable or reusable containers". The view of the future could hardly be more different.'

Renew: A path with great potential

Where reuse is not possible, however, renew can be a path with a great deal of potential - especially if it is possible to replace materials of fossil origin, such as most plastics, with renewable alternatives. Corn, starch or sugar cane are suitable starting materials for this and are already being used. Agricultural or production residues are increasingly being used for fiber-based materials and packaging.

But the industry's innovative strength goes much further. For years, the industry has been working on processes that allow CO2 to be filtered from the air and converted into ethanol, which then serves as the basis for sustainable plastics. Mattresses made of CO2 are already available, also are car parts.

Sven Sängerlaub, professor of packaging technology and manufacturing at Munich University of Applied Sciences, is therefore certain that the renew idea, which consists of redesigning existing packaging in the direction of sustainability, will still receive a lot of impulses: 'There are three gamechangers in packaging: innovations, costs and legislation.'

Currently, we have reached a point where the last two points are massively important. The European Union's Green Deal, with its commitment to the circular economy, is already attracting national regulations that are forcing companies to renew their packaging strategies. High energy prices, in turn, are increasingly enforcing considerations of which packaging materials are energy-intensive in their production and which are not. But in addition to the energy factor, since Corona, the supply chain in general and availability also play a major role in which concept is chosen.

'Where the journey is heading depends more and more on the general direction of the company and on the sales markets for the products. For internationally active companies, plastic is often only the very last option; biodegradable plastics may still be considered. For long-life products, on the other hand, reusable containers are often ruled out as consumer packaging because the return periods are far too long,' explains Peter Désilets. Increasingly rarely does the solution consist of a mono-material solution, but rather a mix of materials, especially in the case of electrical or household appliances, which are often still packaged with Styrofoam. Combining the advantages of several routes often leads to success in the end.

In the end, it's the total balance that counts

The desire to replace every component of packaging that is not renewable or at least biodegradable with substitute materials should not be absolute, however, Sängerlaub emphasizes: 'In the case of food and medicine, we often need functional barriers that cannot be achieved with other materials, or only with a larger ecological footprint."

However, the footprint can definitely be reduced if you pay attention to the origin of the energy used for packaging production. Renew can therefore also mean consciously relying on green electricity, even if this may lead to somewhat higher prices.

And of course renew also plays a role at the end of the product life cycle. Here, renew becomes recycling. In the course of renew processes, companies can also redesign their packaging so materials that cannot be recycled to a greater extent are replaced by materials that can be.

And where that isn't possible either, it is still possible to consider how to design the packaging in such a way that it can be collected as easily as possible and, at the end of life, tbe thermally recycled. 'It is important that sustainability is no longer only seen as a cost driver, as experience shows that significant cost savings are achieved. After all, sustainability means avoiding waste. And that means saving costs. In the end, our customers are always positively surprised when they look at the solution as a whole instead of just the pure material costs,' says Peter Désilets.

How packaging can be renewed for more sustainability

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