Sustainable Honey Packaging Project in Cooperation with Three Enterprises Scores at “Prix Entreprises & Environnement"

Greiner Packaging, Roskoplast, the apiary Michaud Apiculteurs and APESA have optimised the environmentally relevant aspect of plastic packaging for honey.

2/10/2011 --- The plastics specialist Roskoplast, the beekeepers Famille Michaud Apiculteurs and Greiner Packaging are located in South France near the town of Pau. The three enterprises are located as little as 15 kilometres from one another. During the development of the new plastic honey packaging, the geographical closeness proved to be a great benefit for the environment.

Valuable raw material instead of waste
In the daily production processes, Roskoplast uses food-safe PET foils. To date, foil left over after cutting has been disposed of. Now, after purchasing grinding equipment, left overs can be shredded and recycled. The finished product, recycled PET, was thoroughly tested by Greiner Packaging – with successful results.

PET bottle made from 90 per cent recycled PET
Greiner Packaging uses the eco-friendly raw material for the production of new honey packaging for Famille Michaud Apiculteurs. The innovative honey packaging weighs just 28 grams. It consists of 90 per cent recycled PET. Until now, Famille Michaud Apiculteurs procured their packaging from Spain or Northern France. The requisite raw material originated in Asia. Both involved long transport routes and a correspondingly high level of CO2 emissions. Thanks to the raw material treatment and production located very close to the beekeeper, the long transport routes are no longer necessary.

Large-scale economising on CO2, oil, electric power and water
The environmental engineering company APESA accompanied Greiner Packaging, Roskoplast and Michaud Apiculteurs throughout project implementation. Numerous calculations needed to be made, the results of which underscore the positive influence of the new honey packaging on the environment:
- The CO2 emissions will be reduced by 70% or 65 tons annually.
- Oil consumption will be 80% or 40 tons less annually.
- Electric power consumption will drop by 67%.
- Water consumption will decrease by 27%.