OUR LATEST STORIES

20.10.2022

#PajunkSustainability - Sustainable Packaging

Germany has the highest packaging waste production in Europe - in 2019, the total amount was around 18.9 million tons. In the last two years, however, the total amount has increased significantly due to the pandemic. Online trade and disposable to-go products are steadily driving the trend.¹

Since the production of disposable packaging is time-consuming, while the product itself does not have a long lifespan, not only resources are wasted, but also energy and water. Due to the shortage of resources, it is essential to recycle and reuse materials such as plastic, glass and paper.

What does recycling mean?

Recycling is the processing and reuse of raw materials, in which the material passes through a cycle. A difference is made between downcycling and upcycling. Downcycling is when a material has a lower quality standard than it did at the beginning of the process. Upcycling, on the other hand, describes the exact opposite.

Not only resources are saved by recycling, but also energy and water. The mining of new, rare raw materials in particular is a great burden on the environment, as rainforests often have to be cleared and agricultural land destroyed. For example, each ton of recycled plastic saves one ton of CO2, recycled paper saves 100% wood, 70% water and 60% energy.² Particularly the separation of paper is therefore of great importance. In 2020, around 21.4 million tons of paper and cardboard were produced in Germany, for which around 17 million tons of waste paper were recycled.³

How can you identify sustainable material?

In order to identify what really meets the desired sustainability standard, there are various labels and certifications. In addition to the well-known labels such as WWF and Fairtrade, certificates concerning forest management are particularly important for the production of cardboard boxes and packaging material made of paper. This includes the FSC® seal of the Forest Stewardship Council, which indicates that the wood used for the particular product comes from sustainably and responsibly managed forests. For example, these certified forests are demarcated into individual areas to ensure that only a certain number of trees are felled each year from a particular area.

Similar requirements are met by products or forests marked with the internationally recognized PEFC seal (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes). Not only European countries have a PEFC system, but also other countries such as Canada, the United States, Russia, China, as well as India, Indonesia, Cameroon or Brazil.

RESY Organisation für Wertstoffentsorgung GmbH specializes in the recycling of transport and outer packaging made of paper and cardboard. The license obliges the manufacturers of packaging material to take back the cardboard boxes and to take care of the recycling or material recovery, so that it can be guaranteed that all cardboard boxes marked with the RESY symbol are safely disposed of and returned to the recycling system.⁴

What do we pay attention to?

In order to contribute to environmental protection, PAJUNK has decided to make the packaging material, especially the cardboard boxes, 100% recyclable. We purchase our cardboard boxes from local manufacturers in order to guarantee the quality and to keep the CO2 emissions as low as possible.

We put great emphasis on the fact that our suppliers use only renewable raw materials for their production, which are mostly recyclable. Solid board and corrugated board consist of organic fibers and are reused for the production of new paperboard after disposal in the recycling system. Our suppliers also source their raw materials from sustainably managed forests and are also FSC-certified. Corrugated board in particular is a key factor when it comes to sustainability, as it consists of 80% recycled material such as waste paper and cardboard and is itself 100% recyclable.⁵

The cardboard or paper packaging used in the finishing process consists of up to 96% recycled material despite the pigmentation and the resulting high degree of whiteness. This includes 20% PIW (post industrial waste) and 60% PCW (post-consumer waste). Post-industrial waste is waste that is generated during manufacturing and reused within the manufacturing process, while post-consumer waste is generated by consumers. However, experts disagree on whether PIW can actually be titled as recycled material, as reusing waste products during a manufacturing process only leads to a reasonable use of the raw materials.⁶

Our packaging is recyclable and compostable, and not only meets the FSC and PEFC guidelines mentioned in advance, but also has quality and energy management certificates.

The cardboard boxes for transport and shipping are also FSC certified and most of them are marked with the RESY symbol.

When shipping, we not only prioritize sustainable shipping cartons, but also recycled protective packaging to secure the goods within the outer packaging. We mostly use filler in the form of recycled paper bubble strip. The use of air cushion pads made of thin, also recycled plastic therefore only occurs in exceptional cases.

In addition, we use not only regular stretch film, but also a perforated film (stretch film with holes, also called stretch net) to secure the ready-packed boxes and the entire load unit. We primarily use it to better sterilize the goods through it. However, it also has a green advantage. The holes in the surface mean that significantly less plastic is required overall, which in turn means that less packaging waste is produced. Perforated film is therefore, despite the higher price, just like very thin stretch film, a good alternative to normal stretch film.

Future Plans

Since the implementation has worked very well so far, we want to continue to develop in the future and take further measures so that the quality and, above all, the sustainability of our packaging improves as much as possible. Not only do we want to make our cardboard packaging recyclable, but we also want to find a sustainable solution for plastic product packaging in order to reduce our total amount of waste and new resources.

The topic of sustainability is therefore to be taken up even further and remain an integral part of our company.

¹Europäischer Vergleich: Deutschland beim Verpackungsmüll ganz vorn | tagesschau.de

²Was bringt Recycling? – Sauberhaftes Hessen (sauberhaftes-hessen.de)

³ Altpapier | Umweltbundesamt

⁴ Über uns / RESY Organisation für Wertstoffentsorgung GmbH

⁵ Nachhaltige Verpackungen - Direkt vom Hersteller beziehen (straub-verpackungelln.de)

⁶ Der Unterschied: Post-consumer und Post-industrial Abfälle | OEKOPROMOTION - DAS KW OPEN JOURNAL (green-promotion.at)