Cardboard from grass, or: the future of sustainable packaging

Since the e-commerce boom at the latest, it has become obvious that packaging is a serious, rapidly growing challenge for climate protection and global CO2 emissions. Why? Because cardboard remains the main packaging material. And it still is widely produced with a high energy input and thrown away on a massive scale after use. The cardboard contains cellulose. And this fiber pulp has a mixed CO2 balance. For the climate, this is initially annoying – but at the same time, it holds huge potential.

In our Business Area K?rber Pharma we have been working at full speed for a long time to develop innovative packaging solutions with our industrial partners that help to offer products with a lower CO2 footprint – using alternative materials that reduce raw inputs and emissions. Our latest coup: cardboard from grass. Cardboard made from grass? Correct. What sounds incredible at first, is incredibly good, on closer inspection, for the planet. By needing just 50% of the cellulose in pharmaceutical packaging with grass fibers, the need for wood, water, and energy drops significantly for production – with reductions of up to 95% in CO2 emissions.

Grass grows fast and almost everywhere

The background: cellulose is usually produced from fresh wood, and the sulfate process commonly used here involves high water, chemical, and energy consumption. Grass, on the other hand, grows easily - much faster than wood and therefore almost everywhere in the world.

This saves transport distances, time, and costs. In addition, unlike cellulose, grass contains no chemical additives and is therefore 100 percent compostable. All this makes the grass a potentially great alternative to paper and cardboard packaging.

We are currently working on several concrete test projects for folding cartons and trays with various global pharmaceutical companies. The study results and patient surveys to date are very encouraging. According to their findings, handling and product quality are considered to be equivalent to cellulose-based materials. Equal product quality, equal product protection at comparable costs, and with massive CO2 savings - that was our common vision from the very beginning. And it is also an integral part of our Delivering the difference strategy at K?rber Business Area Pharma, which aims directly at eliminating plastic packaging completely.

So far, our grass cartons have been considered exclusively for secondary packaging - i.e., packaging that surrounds a product that has already been packaged. This has to do with the fact that we are only at the beginning of processing grass fibers into cardboard material. And that, too, is part of the truth: Grass fibers "crumble" somewhat more easily than pure cellulose. Testing and optimization of the material remain a top priority. As a result, we have so far only used the new process with packaged pharmaceuticals, and grass fibers are not yet an option in the short term for mass-produced B2C consumer packaging – for example in the food or cosmetics sectors. But we are working intensively to further refine our processing techniques so that no mini particles can get into the product.

Beyond pharma: grass carton is conceivable for coffee or perfume?

Once we have solved this issue, grass cartons could really help to solve our global packaging problem on a large scale beyond pharma – it is quite conceivable that coffee capsules or perfume bottles will soon be shipped in cartons made of grass. In Germany alone, cellulose-based packaging production was more than 13.5 million tons in 2021 (Statista). What will it be like in 5 or 10 years?

One thing is important to me personally: with this project, together with our partner companies, we are showing that we can make a difference in terms of sustainability, even in the highly regulated pharmaceutical industry. At K?rber, we have been pioneers in the field of sustainable production chains for more than 40 years, following our overall promise: We enable a better life for current and future generations.

We supply international pharmaceutical customers with increasingly plastic-free packaging that is biodegradable. With our customized Rondo and Dividella solutions for monomaterial packaging, we have set global standards for secondary packaging. And with our ecodesign approach, we work intensively to avoid up to 80 percent?of the environmental impacts associated with a product as early as the development and design phase.

Our CO2 target: no scope 1 & 2 emissions by 2025

We want to build on this pioneering position – by continuing to set new standards and ambitious demands – not least on ourselves. As a Group, we have proclaimed the goal of being CO2 neutral for scopes 1 and 2 by 2025. To this end, we are forging numerous alliances. Since 2021, we have been a member of Alliance to Zero ?- a non-profit association of companies in the pharmaceutical and biotech supply chain that aims to facilitate the pharmaceutical sector's transition to net-zero emissions in line with the Paris Climate Agreement target. In 2022, we joined the United Nations Global Compact Initiative, the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative.

In the end, it is not about us as a company. It is about the benefit for our customers. And it is about the impact our actions today will have on the lives and the economic activities of future generations. Here, innovative packaging solutions such as grass cardboard can help us quite a bit. What do you think?

You will find more about sustainability at K?rber ?in our first group-wide sustainability report here:

https://www.koerber.com/en/sustainability