The Green Dot is a sought-after system for packaging licensing and is also appreciated for its diverse seminar and information offers around the important topics of the circular economy for packaging.  The Krefeld-based pet food manufacturer RONDO FOOD booked an individual in-house workshop on the topic of Design for Recycling (D4R) for its employees from the packaging sector.

How do you develop sustainable packaging? Can existing packaging be improved in terms of recyclability, can recyclability be measured? What does the German legislator and the EU have in store for companies?

Our experts Anna Roeb and Antje Kauffmann take up the central questions in the preliminary discussion and tailor the in-house seminar individually.

"It is important to us that the seminar participants can implement imparted knowledge quickly and correctly," says D4R expert Antje Kauffmann. "Knowledge of modern sorting technology and processing of packaging waste, especially plastic, is an indispensable basis for this," adds technical expert Anna Roeb.

To this end, the RONDO FOOD employees were given a virtual tour of a sorting plant and presented with the example of Systalen^® plastic recyclates from the Green Dot processing and possible uses in various applications.

Best practice examples also followed in the area of packaging optimisation. Knowledge imparted here about the criteria for Design4Recycling with requirements based on the applicable minimum standard and the measurability of the sortability and recyclability of packaging can be immediately applied in practice. Not least because our experts have analysed RONDO FOOD packaging in terms of recyclability with the help of the IT tool CHIRA, which is geared to all packaging materials, and have identified optimisation possibilities.

All this was framed with information on national and European packaging legislation. After an intensive training session, the RONDO FOOD team also received an overview of the policy guidelines from the German Packaging Act and an insight into the draft of the European Packaging & Packaging Waste Regulation.

"We booked the in-house workshop because we were very interested in receiving impulses for optimising our packaging in a direct exchange with Green Dot," says Jennifer Köster, who, as a buyer, is also responsible for packaging design at RONDO FOOD. "We got a lot more because we now know the levers that will enable us to secure the best conditions for unhindered access to EU markets with appropriately recyclable packaging and also to benefit from future financial incentives for packaging that is easy to recycle”.