With its recyclable composite packaging for wet wipes, Nölken Hygiene Products is taking the next step in development, thereby ensuring higher recycling quality. The project underlines the long-term efforts in the realization of sustainable products and packaging.
In the case of liquid or sensitive goods, where hygiene and product protection are essential, plastic is the ideal material for packaging. It is light, stable, compatible with many ingredients and does not allow moisture to escape when combined. Nölken’s product development relies on these properties.
Nölken has been offering its customers a recyclable composite film as a packaging variant since 2007. In 2010, the composite film was further optimized through the use of post-industrial recycling material (PIR). In the meantime, 90 percent of the composite films used already consist of recyclable composite films. As a further step, a recyclable composite film made of single-grade material was developed in 2019, which so far has the highest recycling quality.
However, the recycling rate for plastic waste across Europe is currently only 30 percent. The new packaging law, which has been in force in Germany since January 2019, now wants to change that. The purpose of this law is to increase the recycling quotas for packaging waste and thereby actively contribute to environmental protection and resource conservation.
Daniel Kesseler, Head of Product Development and Product Management at Nölken explains: “Plastics are not bad per se, but they need recyclable material, reduced material consumption and better ways of using it.”
For this reason, the manufacturer of cosmetic and cleaning products has set itself the goal of using only recyclable composite film packaging by the end of 2020, which will be implemented for own brands and customer projects. “With our longstanding efforts, we are moving away from linear economic systems, where only waste is generated at the end of use, and reduce the amount of waste for thermal recycling”, Daniel Kesseler is convinced and is therefore playing at the request of customers and consumers towards a more circular economy.
For many years, the development team has been working in cooperation with its suppliers on sustainable packaging solutions to reduce resource consumption and the generation of plastic waste.
Source: Nolken website
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