Here is the shipping box with paludi fibres

Ms Jabben, how did the idea for the shipping box with paludi fibres come about at OTTO?

At OTTO, we look at the big picture. We believe that we can make a contribution to climate protection with paludiculture and make the issue bigger together with other companies.

As a graduate environmental scientist, I am always looking for innovative packaging together with my colleagues in the Sustainable Development department and we also have experience from other pilot projects. We have learned about this thanks to the toMOORow initiative.

There were several reasons why the packaging sector was an obvious choice for a first "paludiculture product": Paludi biomass is the easiest to integrate into the production chain here and customers are actively requesting sustainable packaging. A shipping box is our first touchpoint with the customer. It may not attract the most attention and quickly ends up in the bin, but the expectations are still high. The sustainability of the carton should be visible without the customer having to read long texts. With this cardboard, we can communicate the topic briefly and well on the cardboard itself and around it.

Have there already been any calculations on the carbon footprint of cardboard with paludi fibres, i.e. how much CO2 can be saved?

No, not yet. We started the project out of idealism and we are now looking at the concrete figures as we progress. Comparisons with existing OTTO products will help us here, for example with regard to the use of water in production or the risk of deforestation. In the end-of-life balance, we look at where the shipping box goes when it is disposed of, how well it is recycled and whether it causes disruption in the reprocessing of the material. The climate assessment comes towards the end of the test phase.

What exactly is the paludiculture biomass in the shipping box and where does it come from?

It is sedge hay. A farm from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern delivered 194 bales of 210 kg each from last year's autumn harvest of approx. 80 ha of wet peatland to the processor creapaper.

There are various scenarios for purchasing. We have not yet worked with farms ourselves, but we are also considering direct purchasing. This could make a difference to the price or minimise the procurement risk.

And what proportion of the paludiculture biomass is in the carton? How much of it was produced?

We have produced 100,000 of the Paludiculture cartons. The shipping box consists of 75% recycled paper, 15% virgin fibre and 10% paludiculture biomass. We started with a rather low proportion of paludiculture biomass, but will also test a higher proportion in the future. However, the stability of the shipping box still has to be guaranteed and too much paludiculture biomass would probably interfere with disposal. However, the paludi content will never be huge and will not exceed 30%.

The proportion of virgin fibre is of course always a dilemma for us and should never be higher. We want to avoid virgin fibre in cardboard boxes.

What were the findings from production?

The creapaper company converted the biomass into pellets for us, producing the raw material, so to speak. Processing was straightforward and the shape of the pellets ensures homogeneous mixing with the other components. The packaging manufacturer Mondi then produced the shipping boxes on a pilot machine. That went without a hitch. However, we don't yet know how the material would behave on the normal machine. The paper webs would be slightly larger there.

What happens next in the test phase?

The test phase is scheduled to last two months, but also depends on the type of orders. The shipping box is intended as packaging for certain products in certain sizes or quantities, and these must be ordered in sufficient quantities.

In addition to the information printed on the outside of each box, there is an insert made of paper, which is also made from paludiculture biomass. The insert explains the new packaging and directs customers to an online questionnaire using a QR code. Unfortunately, we were unable to combine the survey with an incentive, such as a small shopping voucher, as was the case with some previous customer surveys. However, we have already received a response to our questionnaire.

We are also looking at how the shipping box performs in logistics. Does it keep its shape, does it tear, how does it behave when it rains on the delivery route?

Then recyclability is very important. We have this tested by laboratories in advance, but the process at the customer's premises is difficult to control. In the best case scenario, the shipping box goes into the waste paper and then to a waste disposal company. By returning the cardboard to OTTO, where it can be collected "unmixed" and passed on to a disposal company, we gain good insights into recycling that can be transferred. For example, whether machines become clogged or dirty and whether recycling would become more expensive due to maintenance and labour costs.

And what happens after the test phase? What is your best case scenario?

In the best case scenario, the shipping box works well in the logistics processes, is accepted and rated well by customers, and performs really well compared to existing packaging in terms of production and end-of-life balance with a recyclability of over 90%. We manage to develop scenarios for price and supply to make the whole thing bigger.

After an overall assessment, we know where we need to make adjustments, possibly to the size of the shipping box or the type of biomass. A lot depends on the availability and type of processing. For the pilot, the stalks were mechanically defibred, but we are also considering other processing methods. Chemical defibration provides longer and more stable fibres, but of course requires the use of chemicals. The high silicate content in biomass from paludiculture could be problematic here. There are thermal processes for which the energy input is crucial.

I think it's unlikely that the shipping box will be the final product for our packaging, but our current test is already making a promising impression.

Interview by Nina Körner and Clemens Kleinspehn.

Background:
The OTTO Group is one of 14 companies who joined forces as an “Alliance of Pioneers” to build scalable value chains based on paludiculture biomass. The Alliance of Papers has developed out of the toMOORow initiave of Environmental Foundation Michael Otto and Michael Succow Stiftung. In the PaludiAllianz project,  the Environmental FoundationMichael Otto, the University of Greifswald and the Succow Foundation have been coordinating and supporting the growing alliance of interested companies since April 2024. Among other things, they offer the participating companies from the various economic sectors expert Circles, e.g. on building materials or paper and cardboard packaging. The almost 3-year joint project PaludiAllianz is funded by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) via the Agency for Renewable Resources (FNR) from the special fund “Climate and Transformation Fund (KTF)”.