Simultaneously, as demands for greater sustainability rise, the packaging industry faces the challenge of finding creative solutions.
Schütz proves that sustainability does not have to come at the expense of quality with the innovations that form its Green Lifecycle Management programme.
By applying cutting-edge technology, the packaging expert has developed the Green Layer range of industrial packaging products that contain a higher proportion of recycled plastic.
Industrial enterprises face numerous challenges in this day and age. As well as having to reduce their carbon footprint and make supply chains more sustainable, they must also find a way of dealing with the increasing shortage of resources.
Eco-friendly industrial packaging that favours recycling and reusing can make a decisive contribution to solving both problems.
At Schütz, this principle is particularly evident in the company’s Green Layer packaging.
The IBC inner bottles, jerry cans and plastic drums in this product range include 30 per cent high-quality, natural-coloured recycled material.
What makes this process special is that Schütz uses the recyclate exclusively for the middle layer of the inner bottle.
New HDPE is used to make the inner and outer layers, meaning that the filling product and the environment only come into direct contact with virgin material.
In terms of quality, there is no difference between Green Layer packaging and other packaging ranges. However, by using recyclate, up to 6.8 kg of CO2 per IBC and up to 3.8 kg per drum is saved.
Green Layer products are ideally suited as eco-friendly solutions for numerous applications, especially the transport of hazardous goods.
As the company takes a holistic approach to sustainability, the recycled pellets are obtained from empty packaging collected as part of its global collection scheme and processed at the company’s own recycling centre.
In this way, customers return used products to a closed material cycle with the help of the Schütz Ticket Service.
Schütz created the necessary infrastructure for this scheme many years ago and can guarantee low CO2 transport thanks to short distances and software-supported route optimisation.
With the Schütz Ticket Service, the packaging expert gives customers the opportunity to make a valuable contribution to environmental protection with minimal effort.
At the same time, it is essential that customers become actively involved: only if users return emptied packaging to Schütz will there be sufficient quantities available for plastic recovery to supply customers with new recycled packaging.
To ensure that the packaging complies with the highest technical standards now and in the future, Schütz continuously invests in state-of-the-art production technology as well as in research and development.
For example, in recent years the packaging expert has refined the material recycling processes so that even heavily contaminated material can be reconditioned in accordance with the strictest environmental and safety standards.
All these measures contribute significantly and help Schütz to achieve the fundamental goal of Green Lifecycle Management – to ensure the broadest possible and most cost-efficient supply of ecological packaging.