Alexander, your company prides itself on being a pioneer in eco-friendly products. Does that apply to their packaging as well?

Back in 1986, with environmental awareness on the rise, Werner & Mertz established Frosch as a brand for eco-friendly cleaning products. It led the way back then and we’re leading the way again by working to close the loop for our packaging materials.

What’s the current share of recycled material in your bottles and what’s the target?

Roughly 70 percent of our bottles currently incorporate recycled materials. We’ve committed ourselves to using 100 percent recycled material by the year 2025 for all of our packaging. So we’re well underway, but there’s work left to be done.

What’s holding you back?

There are both economic and technical hurdles. The use of recycled materials still lacks economies of scale. Today, recycled plastics are in many cases more expensive than virgin plastics. But we’re confident that this will change with growth in demand and supply. In the meantime, we´re working with different shareholders on solutions for recyclable packaging and working to open new fields for the use of recycled materials.

Impurities in recycled materials are a problem. Where do they come from?

Some stem from labels for example. We’re dealing with inks, adhesives, and paper fibers that end up in the recyclates. Here we need to call both on recycling firms to improve treatment processes and on packaging manufacturers to use more recycling-friendly solutions. But there’s also the issue of complex plastic mixes. What to a consumer might seem like a simple enough plastic pack, say for cheese or meats, is in fact made up of several functional layers, each from a different plastic with any number of additives in the mix. Here we need unification in materials.

You mentioned joint Research & Development. Who are you working with?

No one company can solve this problem alone. We need to work with partners along the entire packaging value chain. That’s why, in 2012, we started our recyclate initiative. It involves »Der Grüne Punkt™«, Germany’s largest industry-funded waste collection scheme, a supermarket chain, a big manufacturer of plastic bottles and caps, as well as an environmental group and the makers of sensors used to sort waste. But it’s an open collaboration that invites any company to get involved, including our competitors.

Don’t recyclers work with plastics manufacturers anyway?

A lot less than you’d think. We made an effort to actually visit recycling facilities and bottle-production sites together. That was a first for some. To better understand the needs and constraints along the value chain is part of our drive to rethink packaging.

Where does a supplier like Clariant come in?

We recently introduced a new bottle cap made entirely of recycled polypropylene extracted from household waste. Together with Clariant, we’ve developed a new type of color masterbatch for our trademark green that is tailored to this specific post-consumer plastic. Not only that, we were able to substitute certain chemicals in this masterbatch, making it particularly sustainable and recyclable. It follows the Cradle-to-Cradle™ guidelines, and the certification process has started.

What’s the key in designing for recyclability?

We need to rethink certain paradigms in packaging. For example, for years the industry has designed for packaging to be lightweight. That often meant using ever thinner layers but adding different materials, additives, and functions. This causes problems in recycling up to no recyclability at all. »Healthy materials«, meaning mono-materials without additives, would actually be a huge boon to recyclability.

Are you following this route to simplicity?

Yes. Last year, we patented a 100-percent recyclable pouch made of a polyethylene mono-material that will hit the shelves this year for a laundry detergent and a host of other products. The spout and cap are also made of polyethylene, and, instead of printing or gluing on any labels, we dress the pack in a decorative layer of low-density polyethylene that comes off easily and cleanly after use.