The 10 R's of sustainability in packaging helps define your sustainability strategy. These think the legal waste hierarchy further and take into account individual key parameters (e.g. sales market or country of manufacture) of your company.
The German Closed Substance Cycle Waste Management Act of 2012 defines the handling of waste through the waste pyramid. This is divided into five stages and aims to strengthen the Circular Economy:
– Prevention
– Preparation for reuse
– Recycling
– Other recovery (energetic)
– Disposal (landfill).
To define a sustainability strategy, we think ahead from the legal waste pyramid and use our 10 newly formulated R's for sustainability in packaging as a guide. Depending on your sales market, the strategic direction of sustainable packaging may vary. Countries with little recycling infrastructure or landfill require less effort on recyclability, but should consider biodegradability more. Countries with high recycling infrastructure, on the other hand, are more likely to focus on recyclable or recycled packaging. Climatic conditions also have an influence on your material use and determine barrier properties of your ecodesign. The current focus is on the approaches Refuse, Renew, Remove and Recycle. Reuse is still a very complex topic, as new innovative infrastructures have to be built and a circular system has to be established. In recent years, however, the efforts of companies to the reuse approach are increasing and new markets are emerging. We would be happy to advise you on this. For a first overview on the topic of reuse, please have a look at our Cycrol approach and our Virtual Reality on the topic of reuse.
Which R's are of particular relevance to you, we can determine together with you. With the help of these results PACOON supports you in developing your individual sustainability strategy.