Lindt & Sprungli relies on Interseroh+ for sustainable packaging optimization
Lindt & Sprungli continues to develop the recyclability and efficiency of its packaging raw materials. As a competent service provider, Interseroh+ monitors the achievement of packaging-specific sustainability goals. “Made for recycling” provides independent analysis and recognized certification.
Cologne. Lindt & Sprungli wants that by 2025 make all packaging recyclable or reusable, eliminate non-recyclable plastics and reduce overall new plastic consumption by 20 percent. The leading supplier of premium chocolates is now using the expertise of environmental service provider Interseroh+ to sustainably optimize its packaging. Based on the recognized “Made for Recycling” standard, Interseroh+ supports the efficient implementation of the “Lindt & Sprungli Packaging Commitments” worldwide.
Akel Konig, Manager of the Corporate Sustainable Packaging Initiative at Lindt & Sprungli, explains: “Interseroh+’s professional support will help Lindt & Sprungli achieve our five sustainable packaging commitments to support the circular economy.
“We are delighted to be able to support Lindt & Sprungli’s packaging mission. Our experts have innovative tools and the necessary knowledge to implement packaging concepts with the highest possible recycling rates and high efficiency of raw materials for all possible market conditions and products. We are proud to be able to support such top companies as Lindt & Sprungli”, says Markus Miler-Dreksel , CEO of Interseroh+ GmbH.
As a competent companion on the way to recyclable and sustainable packaging, Interseroh+ offers tailor-made solutions. Long-term cooperation includes continuous consulting around the world – including the USA, France, Italy and the DACH region. In expert workshops, specific knowledge on topics such as the use of recycling and paper packaging is also imparted.
Lindt & Sprungli uses the online tool “Check Recyclability” to quickly and easily assess the recyclability of the packaging itself. Internationally experienced experts from “Made for Recycling” take over for a more detailed analysis. The service with its scientific evaluation methodology was developed by the environmental protection service provider Interseroh together with the bifa Institute for the Environment and validated by the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging IVV.
At Interseroh+’s in-house competence center for plastics recycling, experts not only examine packaging materials and design, but also practical sorting and recyclability. The laboratory in Maribor, Slovenia is in 2020. received international accreditation (ISO/IEC 17025:2017) – the only recognized research institution in the EU specialized in the development and analysis of recycled plastics.
About Lindt & Sprungla:
Lindt & Sprungli has been enchanting the world with chocolate for more than 175 years. The traditional Swiss company with roots in Zurich is a world leader in the field of premium chocolate. Today, quality Lindt & Sprungli chocolates are produced in 11 own production locations in Europe and the USA. They are distributed by 31 branches and branches, in about 500 own stores and through a network of over 100 independent distributors around the world. With more than 14,000 employees, the Lindt & Sprungli Group achieved sales of CHF 4.59 billion in 2021.
Packaging with return fee
Labor Day is behind us, the weather served us to some extent and we are convinced that most of us spent this weekend somewhere in the air, in the pleasant company of family and friends, with a barbecue and some cold drinks.
Likewise, we are convinced that today, all of us who enjoyed the company yesterday, have the same question on our minds: Where now with all those enormous empty bottles of juice, water, wine, beer…?
We are sure that your car trunks, like ours, contain at least one bag of such bottles that you plan to store somewhere.
In a container with communal waste? Not at all.
Throw it through the car window somewhere in the forest? Not even in madness.
In the neighbor’s trash can? It is neither human nor right.
There is a better, far more correct and cost-effective way to dispose of bottles.
Look out for the return charge label on your empty bottles!
According to the Ordinance on packaging and packaging waste, you can hand over bottles with a return fee label to nearby stores that sell drinks, and they are larger than 200 square meters. They are obliged to collect the packaging from you and, for each correct and empty bottle, pay you a return fee in the amount of HRK 0.50 per packaging unit.
The return fee is a monetary amount paid by beverage manufacturers as an incentive measure to encourage the return of packaging and thereby reduce the impact on the environment by recycling the materials from which the packaging is made.
In the same way, it is possible to return bottles of milk and milk products with a volume of more than 2 dl, just make sure that the bottles must have a return fee label, they must be correct, undamaged and emptied of their contents.
In many shopping centers and stores that sell drinks, you will find machines for accepting packaging, and in some, cheerful and smiling staff in Interseroh colors who will inspect and collect your packaging and issue a payment slip for it, which you can cash in at the cash registers.
What is important to know?
Not every packaging is the right packaging for which you can get HRK 0.50 per bottle. Bottles that are damaged or have no labels, are of foreign origin or do not have a refund mark, contain liquid in them or contents, are not entitled to a refund.
Despite the fact that they may not have a return fee, it is equally important to adequately sort them and dispose of them in containers designed for plastic or glass packaging, depending on which materials the bottles are made of.
It is also important to know that there is a daily limit for packaging with a return fee, which amounts to a maximum of 80 pieces of packaging units per person in one day.
Remember that the next time the packaging reception employee returns a couple of bottles to you because they are not correct or because you have already handed over your daily limit.
Do not be angry, he does not decide on his own, but only follows the instructions of the Fund for Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency, which prescribes the way to deal with waste packaging in the return compensation system.
Return your packaging and dispose of it in the prescribed containers, because only by meaningful and responsible actions of each of us can we influence the world we leave to future generations.
If you are a shopping center or a seller who puts non-returnable packaging on the market in the return fee system and accepting the packaging is causing you a headache, contact us. We will be happy to share our knowledge with you and offer you advice or fully organize packaging acceptance for you in order to fulfill your legal obligation to your customers.
Author: Adriana Budak
Interzero participates in Waste Expo Croatia 12
+++Interview with Vanja Horvat, director of Interzero doo
++In the last 30 years or so, the EU has been strongly faced with growing amounts of waste of all kinds, and it was necessary for product manufacturers to take responsibility for their products packed in packaging during their lifetime, but also when the product and packaging become waste.
Recent EU policies, such as the Green Deal, have additionally increased the pressure on producers and consumers to reduce the amount of waste, reduce the carbon footprint of production, and make the concept of circular economy a sustainable mechanism that will drive the EU economy. Extended producer responsibility (EPR) is basically a tool that obligates producers to participate in all activities to strengthen reuse, recycling and other ways of recovering products and packaging after use. One of the activities is the payment of the waste management fee.
For the first time in the 1990s, Germany, Sweden and France opened the market and transferred the EPR concept to Organizations that continuously improve the set goals with their knowledge and market competition. To this day, such a system is being adopted by an increasing number of countries around the world. In order for the financial contribution of producers through EPR to be effective, it was necessary to develop EPR schemes for as many types of products as possible, given that products differ significantly in terms of their purpose, composition, impact on the environment, and ultimately on human health. EPR schemes for certain types of waste products aim to enable a significant increase in collection and recycling, that is, to reduce the amount of waste disposed of in landfills.
EPR and the Republic of Croatia
The implementation of EPR in the vast majority of EU countries is led by Organizations. In a smaller number of members, one Organization operates on the principle of monopoly, while in about 15 member Organizations they compete under open market conditions. This concretely means that producers can choose the Organization that will collect and dispose of packaging waste from their products under the most favorable market conditions, and at the same time fulfill all the obligations arising from the fulfillment of national goals. In Croatia, these goals are met by the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund through the fee for waste management paid by producers who place their products on the Croatian market, and this is a unique model in the EU. The problem that we are all aware of is that this model allows a large number of producers (especially if we are talking about packaging waste) not to pay compensation, because there is no effective mechanism that would cover all those liable. We hope that the register of taxpayers, which should come to life with the new Ordinance on packaging waste, will largely solve this problem. Another problem is the closedness of the waste management market, which is conditioned by the model that Croatia has and weak results in meeting the goals. In any case, in countries where the Organizations work under conditions of competition with strong state control, the rates of meeting the goals are very high, the costs of waste management for the economy are lower, and producers play an active role in the Organizations.
WHERE ARE WE NOW?
As an illustrative example, I will take packaging waste. The results of the packaging waste management system in Croatia are significantly below the goals set by the Directives. Therefore, it is very certain that in the coming years, Croatia will move further away from the given goals if it does not improve the system and open the packaging waste market in accordance with EU standards. This statement is supported by the statement in the Waste Management Plan of the Republic of Croatia 2017-2022. “that the goals prescribed in the Directive on packaging and waste packaging 94/62/EC have not been achieved and that there is a danger that without opening the market, and in accordance with the Waste Directive 2008/98/EC (the introduction of Organizations) as one of the ways of improving the system, the goals they will not be realized even in the future”. The concern for achieving the goals is 2020. expressed by the European Commission, offering a proposal to improve the performance of the system of extended producer responsibility by “restructuring the existing approach so that it is prescribed that producers must establish their own non-profit organization for producer responsibility, whose task would be to collect compensation from producers and distribute them to local self-government units, while ensuring that these fees are not more than what is necessary for the particular service”. How vulnerable the existing system is can be clearly seen from the comparison of data for Croatia and Slovenia for 2019. Namely, Slovenia, which has half the population of Croatia, puts 53% more packaging per inhabitant on the market (115 kg, as opposed to Croatia’s 75 kg), and the total amount of packaging put on the market in Croatia is only 67 thousand tons higher (HR 302 000t vs. SLO 235,300t). If, through a simple simulation, the data for Croatia were increased to Slovakia’s level, i.e. to 115 kg per inhabitant, the results in meeting the goals for individual types of packaging waste would be even more modest, despite the refund system, which in Croatia has proven to be an efficient tool for managing three types packaging waste. Therefore, there is a real possibility that the introduction of the register of waste management fee payers will significantly increase the amount of reported packaging waste, and consequently the collection and recycling rates will further decrease.
CONCLUSION
With the implementation of EU initiatives and the current shortage of recycled materials, we are faced with an even greater challenge of keeping up with the ever-increasing amounts of waste, with ever-higher recycling targets, and the lack of favorable raw materials needed for production. New rules and regulations on special categories of waste, which are in the process of being drafted and passed, open up an opportunity to open up the market, introduce new processes and enable producers to actively participate in waste management. The market model and Organizations should be a lever that will ensure and accelerate the development of primary selection in all areas of the Republic of Croatia, encourage the construction of waste sorting plants and thereby provide raw materials to the recyclers. This same waste will thus be turned into raw material and returned to the Croatian economy, thus reducing the need for imports, that is, enabling Croatian companies to purchase materials more favorably.
Reusable king: Interseroh and Burger King® are launching a joint reusable king pilot project
In a six-month pilot project, Interseroh and Burger King® are bringing reusable drinking cups to twelve Burger King® restaurants in Cologne and Frehen. From 1. March 2022 customers had the opportunity to choose reusable drinking glasses as an alternative to disposable packaging when ordering. A deposit system is used for implementation, with which reusable cups for hot and cold drinks can be borrowed for one euro and returned to all participating restaurants.
With the active use of up to 60,000 cups put into circulation, hundreds of thousands of disposable cups can be saved. As a Burger King® long-term supplier of environmental and waste management services, Interseroh continuously supports the goal of avoiding waste through plastic reduction and recycling. Findings from the pilot project will be used to expand the system across Germany and develop further reusable alternatives. The goal is to offer reusable options nationwide by 2023. years.
With its experience and advice, Interseroh was not only close to the Burger King’s® side before the introduction of the “looping” system. During the pilot period, the environmental service provider will continue to undertake all steps for the circulation of reusable drinking cups. After collecting the used cups, they are cleaned in accordance with all hygiene standards and then delivered to Burger King® for reuse.
“Waste prevention is an essential part of the sustainable use of resources,” says Interseroh CEO Dr. Akel Schweitzer. “We are pleased that Burger King® is addressing this important issue and that we can support it with our long-standing expertise in closing the product cycle. The joint project with Burger King® fits very well into our vision of a world without waste and we hope for a lively use of reusable cups. Since it is reusable, the more often it is used, the better it is for the environment.”
You can find additional information about the joint reusable project with Burger King® at: https://www.interzero.de/mehrweg
New rules for packaging and electronic devices
Interzero shows online sellers efficient solutions at eBay Open
+++ At the online meeting of eBay dealers 7. and September 8 in Berlin, the circular service provider offers help in dealing with VerPackG and ElektroG rules +++ Optimal support for packaging licensing via the Lizenzero platform
+++ Portal on waste electrical and electronic equipment for 2023. year Berlin/Cologne.
Cooperation between online platform operators and circular service providers is still quite unusual today. However, eBay and Interzero entered into a comprehensive partnership back in the spring. At eBay Open, the online meeting of professional dealers of the sales platform, this partnership can be experienced for the first time on September 7 and 8 in Berlin. Digital platform operators, and eBay in particular, have set themselves ambitious sustainability goals. At the same time, in July of this year, a further regulatory step was implemented to strengthen the recycling system: according to the Packaging Act, online retailers must now also participate in the packaging return system, and digital market operators must now also take advantage of the new requirement to control this. “Interzero supports eBay and its dealers with an online packaging licensing store, Lizenzero, and monitors the change. For us, the goal is to keep complexity at a low level despite more regulations and higher costs and to improve processes through our digital solution and the accompanying transparency,” says Klaudija Vegener, head of Lizenzero at Interzero. Decisive for the partnership are Interzero’s many years of experience and operational capabilities. The return of transport packaging and the double Interseroh+ system are part of the portfolio of solutions, as well as the optimization of packaging for recycling. “Even for this short time, the cooperation in this unusual constellation between an online retailer and a circular service provider has brought us great benefits. Thanks to Interzero, the transition went smoothly after the extension of the licensing obligation for packaging to online retail in July. We look forward to the meeting and joint discussions with our dealers at the eBay Open in Berlin,” says Marius Haufe, Senior Project Manager Managed Marketplace Services at eBay Germany. Packaging is just the beginning when it comes to Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) in online retail: from In 2023, retailers will also be required to inspect waste electrical and electronic equipment. Here, eBay and Interzero are already working on a solution for retailers through the so-called Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) portal, provided by a recycling service provider. This topic will also presented to online sellers at the eBay Open by the Interzero team led by Head of Business Development Patrik Kantos-Brava. There will be a stand as a contact point, and Interzero will participate in the panel discussion “EU regulations: Something is coming!” as well as two workshops.
