The Hansgrohe Group will switch to paper product packaging in Germany by the end of 2025. The cardboard and paper elements used for this can be completely recycled after use.
The Green Company team at Hansgrohe Group, the innovative thinking cell of the group’s sustainability strategy, is responsible for the switch from plastic to paper. Project manager Torsten Mayer: "It is our own motivation to apply the sustainability triad of Reduce, Reuse & Recycle to our product packaging. At the same time, more and more of our B2B and B2C customers are actively demanding this." Thanks to the paper campaign, the Hansgrohe Group will save around 312 tons of plastic packaging in the German manufacturing and logistic sites every year, especially in scratch and impact protection, i.e. the elements that protect the faucets and showers in the boxes from scratches and transport damage. Instead of flat bags, bubble wrap, chain bags, adhesive films and cable ties, substitutes made of cardboard or paper are used for product packaging.
"We are currently still working on achieving a quota of 100% paper. That's why we are being completely transparent: as things stand today, we are still a few percent short of reaching our target in full," says Mayer. "The reason for this is that although we now have paper alternatives for almost all products and surface variations, as well as side packs, these have not yet been fully implemented in the production process. In addition, as things stand, there are still some indispensable plastic components in packaging that cannot currently be replaced by paper due to their properties - only with recycled plastic. "
In Germany alone, the largest proportion of all plastic waste comes from sales packaging - a total of around 1.5 million tons per year. Less plastic in packaging reduces the risk of plastic being disposed of improperly, ultimately polluting waterways in the form of microplastic, making humans and animals ill. Every piece of plastic in nature is one too many. This is illustrated by the example of a plastic bottle: it takes up to 450 years for it to completely decompose in the sea.
At the same time Hansgrohe is eliminating plastic in product packaging, the group is also reducing the number of packaging sizes and variations in its product boxes. This is because fewer and more space-saving product packaging optimizes transport and warehouse logistics.
