Recycled paper: Cardboard packaging from paper waste
08/03/2022 |Cardboard packaging at KREUL: Minimizing impact on resources
If no new paper product is used for the packaging, resources can be preserved. Less water and energy is needed for recycling paper than for new virgin-fibre paper. No trees have to be felled to make the new paper. Obvious plus points that we are happy to support and make the most of in our company. Cardboard is not only used at KREUL for packaging sets and kits. We sometimes use cardboard packaging to transport our products to retailers. We don’t make this cardboard packaging ourselves, but buy it in. To minimize CO2 emissions, we order over 98 % of the cardboard packaging regionally in a radius of less than 100 km.
On what products is the icon printed?
The "Recycled Paper" icon can currently be seen on the KREUL Nature Set. The cardboard packaging of our most sustainable DIY paint is made of 94 % recycled paper. The rest consists of virgin fibres. You will also find it on the following products: KREUL Chalky Markers, Set of 4, KREUL Chalky Markers Set of 4 Window Decoration, KREUL Refill Chalky Marker medium Snow White Set, KREUL Textile Marker Opak Set of 4 Black & White and KREUL Triton Acrylic Marker medium Set of 2 Natural Pigments. And, of course, other sets will follow their example in future.
Disposal: Take-back and recycle
Cardboard packaging is functional. It protects products against damage during transport. The sets we put together make it easier for artists and creatives to choose colours. But what happens when the packaging has done its job? KREUL is a company that puts packaging into circulation. Since 1 January 2019, this has been regulated by the German Packaging Act (VerpackG). The objective of this law is to minimize the impact of packaging waste on the environment in Germany. This is implemented in regulations aimed primarily at avoiding packaging waste in the first place and sending it to a recycling system. KREUL is therefore participating in the Germany's Dual System for waste management. We work together mainly with Reclay Systems GmbH. For example, with the take-back and recycling of KREUL sales packaging by Reclay Systems, around 202.7 tonnes CO2 could be saved in 2021.
Recycling materials from cardboard boxes to letter paper
The resource-friendly use of cardboard packaging has made us more aware in our daily work. So we have switched all the paper products that we use daily in our company to recycled materials – including our company stationery. So we can all get separating and recycling waste paper every day. But we think it's much more important not to produce any waste paper in the first place. Our internal document management avoids the unnecessary use of paper in our administration, purchasing and production processes. We have already managed to reduce the paper we use by 60 % over the last five years. As a production operation, we can’t do completely without paper and cardboard, but our commitment to using recycled paper shows that we can make sustainable choices when it comes to packaging, too.