Sustainable packaging – appearances count here!
Sustainability is playing an ever greater role for consumers and producers alike. But the topic is highly complex because many factors influence the sustainability of a product. Often, packaging is overlooked as an opportunity to tangibly increase the sustainability of a product with a considerable grassroots impact.
Sustainability is a frequently used buzzword, but there’s much more behind it than most people suspect. It is often linked to limited-scope themes such as CO2 emissions or the energy consumed in the production process.
In actual fact, however, sustainability means the use of renewable or biodegradable resources, the energy involved in transportation and logistics, the recyclability of waste, and the use of environmentally friendly packaging.
This last topic is especially interesting for companies committed to sustainable production. Packaging not only has a perceptible impact on the sustainability of the complete product but also offers, in the true sense of the term, a platform on which environmentally friendly production can be advertised as an underlying commitment.
Sustainability – what does it really mean?
To assess the sustainability of a product, it is important first of all to define what the word actually means. As mentioned above, sustainability applies not only to individual aspects but instead embraces a product or system in its entirety. To achieve sustainability, consumption must be limited to what can be renewed or what can regenerate.
Thus, in production, the use of resources must be limited to what nature or people can replace. For many products, this ideal balance is hardly attainable because given the extremely complex production processes nowadays, it is difficult to estimate the extent of resource consumption for a specific product. Of course, this does not mean that efforts undertaken to achieve sustainable production are in vain. Global population growth and an increasing shortage of resources make such efforts indispensable. More and more consumers are aware of this and demand sustainably produced goods.
For companies, this is an opportunity to modify production processes in the direction of greater sustainability – as a unique selling proposition in the competitive environment. In this context, Wipf AG can support you with sustainable packaging, because sustainable products deserve sustainable packaging!
Laminates – much better than their reputation
When the issue is sustainable or climate-neutral packaging, plastics and laminates generally have a poor repute. At first sight, this may seem obvious. After all, a glass bottle is much easier to recycle than the cardboard beverage container. Do you agree?
But it’s not that simple – and the stigma of laminate packaging is not justified at all. As far as sustainability is concerned, an assessment must always consider the whole rather than a small part, such as, in the example above, the options for recycling packaging. With respect to transportation, flexible laminate packaging is clearly in the lead. It is less voluminous, lower in weight, and more compactly stackable than glass bottles, for example, or the ubiquitous tin cans. For instance, a truck can transport more product and less “ballast” (e.g. packaging) with the same tonnage – much, much more, actually.
Jars with twist-off caps as typically used for fruit preserves account for more than half the total weight of the product; for tin cans, the container still accounts for 25 per cent of the weight. Conversely, the weight of flexible laminate packaging has a share of merely 5 per cent. Accordingly, their transportation ecobalance is much better than that of other types of packaging. On average, the energy consumption of other types of packaging in logistics is 150 per cent higher than with flexible laminate packaging and costs are even twice as high.
Gain efficiency and sustainability while transporting flexible packaging solutions from Wipf AG:
Even sustainable packaging must provide optimized protection.
But laminates not only score well in logistics, they also offer excellent product protection. This is an advantage especially for food products because unfortunately, a third of all purchased foods in Switzerland spoil and have to be discarded. Obviously, this wastage has a strong impact on the eco-balance of the respective products.
So, if you want to produce sustainably, you will want sustainable packaging that also provides optimized protection – and that’s what flexible laminate packaging does. The individual layers dependably protect foods against exposure to light, moisture, and contaminants. The result is extended durability. Moreover, the packaging assures perfect aroma protection, so foods still taste convincingly flavourful even after extended storage.
Wipf – dedicated to sustainable products from sustainable production
If you want to emphasize the sustainability of your products, flexible laminate packaging is a good choice – but obviously only if the packaging is as climate-neutral as possible and has been sustainably produced. Indeed, the production of laminates is quite energy-intensive.
For this reason, Wipf AG has been committed to more efficient production for many years. For instance, the entire refrigeration system was modernized to reduce overall energy and water consumption. Additionally, Wipf AG uses solvent vapours originating from the production processes to recover energy. This protects the environment in two ways because no solvent vapours are vented into the atmosphere and less “normal” energy is consumed.
This measure and others resulted in a significant reduction of CO2 emissions at Wipf AG. In fact, the target levels were beaten by 50 per cent.
Further, Wipf is constantly adjusting its products to save resources and energy. Among others, packaging mass is being optimized to reduce raw material consumption without affecting fill volumes.
In our sustainability report, you can find out which other milestones we have achieved in terms of C02 reduction and our social responsibility.
„I am proud of the sustainability efforts of Wipf AG!“
Susanne Kromminga von Ballmoos, Development Manager
Packaging for tomorrow’s products
Laminates are already highly suitable for sustainable packaging, but they are not perfect. Accordingly, Wipf AG is engaged in the ongoing pursuit of improvements and new products to boost the sustainability of packaging for the food, pharma, and non-food industries.
One example in this context is a compostable biovalve for coffee packs, that with a matching pouch constitutes a compostable packaging system which is completely biodegradable. Biologically renewable materials play an important role at Wipf as well because, in the foreseeable future, crude oil will have to be replaced with an alternative resource. Looking forward, high-performance films made from renewable resources will offer excellent protection for foods and other products. Thanks to compostability, their eco-balance will be outstanding.
Since the beginning of 2012, Wipf AG has been involved in climate protection together with the environmental organization myclimate.
Our customers thus have the opportunity to offset the emissions for the production of their packaging through selected myclimate projects. With the contributions made, our customers, as well as us, support certified climate protection projects all over the world. The contributions go in their entirety to myclimate, which in turn guarantees that the same amount of CO2 will be compensated over a maximum of three years.
Find out more about our commitment and the projects that we sustainably support.
For more information, visit www.myclimate.org or ask our sales representatives.
Optimal protection for your products – with Wipf packaging
Such a type of packaging is a must if you wish to produce your products in a sustainable manner. From this perspective, laminate packaging is the ideal choice. It provides optimized protection, is convenient for the consumer, and is a perfect way to sustainably brand your product.
In terms of ecology, it also performs clearly better than other packaging, not to mention space savings in transportation and storage. Simply review the advantages of this packaging to gain a personal impression. Let Wipf’s experts advise you. They will gladly submit an offer at no obligation on your part.
Would you like to learn more about our capabilities?
We look forward to hearing from you.
Yours, Wipf AG
T +41 44 947 22 11 | info@wipf.ch