When less is more

Packaging plays a major role in keeping our products in top condition throughout storage, distribution and sale, right up until our customers have got them home, and is also a source of detailed information about the goods inside. In short, packaging is an important – indeed often indispensible – part of our products.

We also strive to protect our planet’s natural resources to the greatest possible extent, and our approach to packaging is no exception.

Use of packaging in 2010

In 2010, we brought approximately 21,333 tons of transport, service and sales packaging into circulation in Germany through our products. All of our packaging is licensed through return and recycling systems according to German law (§ 6 VerpackV “Packaging Ordinance”) and marked with the Green Dot (Der Grüne Punkt). Compared to 2009, when we used 22,011 tons of materials, we were able to save about three per cent of packaging materials.

Saving material: Packaging our consumer goods

As much as necessary, as little as possible: This is our motto when it comes to packaging products for consumers. We want to live up to existing standards of quality and protect the environment through our packaging guidelines. By labelling all of the plastics used in our packaging, we make it easier to recycle these materials. We also do without PVC in our packaging, adhesive tapes and labels and require the use of solvent-free ink with low levels of heavy metal for printing.

In 2009, we began developing a new packaging concept. Our objective is to further increase the environmental responsibility of our packaging and to save more material. We are also working to bring the functions of packaging, especially damage protection and product information, into harmony with environmental factors as well as we can.

Using more and more renewable resources

We meet this requirement by increasing our use of blister packaging, in which parts of the product are visible behind cellophane made from renewable sources. As we improve the environmental features of each package, we use fewer materials. On top of this, we give our customers the chance to see more of the product before they buy.

Protecting quality with quality: Packaging our coffee

We make particularly stringent demands of the quality of our coffee packaging. It has to protect against oxygen and light, since both can damage our coffee’s delicate aroma, and it has to be suitable for the technical filling process. Finally, the packaging must guarantee that the product will survive the entire shipping and delivery process, right up until the product reaches the end customer. Through our coffee packaging, we make absolutely certain that our high quality standards are achieved no matter what – fulfilling our customers’ wishes in the process.

The existing requirements for coffee packaging design place greater limits on our prospects of further optimising packaging in relation to environmental impact than is the case for our consumer goods. However, one thing is certain: In the future we would like to exploit as fully as possible all opportunities that present themselves for the further development of our packaging.

Packaging materials (2008-2010)