Recognising that ecoefficiency is not just limited to products, hager has now optimised its packaging designs in line with various economic and environmental considerations. Thanks to its long practice of conserving resources, the company is thus taking a new leading role in its sector. The cardboard used today is made of 100 unbleached recycling paper. Indeed, up to 85 of the fibres in this natural brown cardboard are derived from multiply recycled paper while the remaining 15 come from recovered paper that has been recycled for the first time. The brown colour of the new packaging is, by the way, is the result of not using any bleach in the process. Which is why the use of chemical bleaches becomes superfluous as well.
The recycling of used packaging is facilitated by the simple fact that the paperboard containers of today are made exclusively of monomaterial. This material can be fed into the raw materials cycle without difficulty because there is no need for complicated processes to separate the different layers. Furthermore, efforts were undertaken to reduce the printed area by a substantial amount &ndash from 60 to approx. 10. This allows for an annual savings of about 30 tons of colouring ink.
Since ink needs to be removed when converting recovered paper into raw material, this particular reduction has an additional highly positive effect in that the consumption of water and energy is decreased during the process. Plus, the uniform white ink used for printing the boxes is a solventfree natural waterbased emulsion ink, making it environmentfriendly from the start. By ensuring that the corrugated board type fits the purpose at hand, and thanks to the ingenious way the new packaging materials are produced, hagers engineers have found it possible to further reduce corrugated board requirements by no less than 20 &ndash savings which were accomplished without detriment to the quality of the product.
Moreover, the space necessary for storage and transport was significantly reduced by optimally adjusting the packaging to product dimensions and pallet space. The packing initiative affects all brands combined under the new hager brand &ndash such as tehalit. With this special packaging initiative, the company is making an exemplary contribution to the conservation of resources as well as making a reality of its stated commitment to environmental sustainability.