WMF to reduce plastic consumption by 40 per cent

The WMF Group has taken steps to reduce its plastic consumption by more than 40 per cent across its supply chain of cutlery items, replacing its polyethylene bags with specially developed paper packaging. Through its proHeq label, WMF provides professional hotel equipment, extending beyond coffee machines to cutlery, tableware. and serving dishes. “The continuing reduction in plastic waste is an important part of our Corporate Social Responsibility Charter. In a sector where there has been no alternative packaging to polyethylene bags for a long time, our new dispatch concept is an important indicator of environmentally-friendlier and innovative use of materials,” says Susanne Schmidt, Head of Marketing and Product Management at proHeq. WMF says the new paper bags are now gradually becoming obligatory for all proHeq cutlery suppliers too. As a result, the roll-out of the initiative will concern up to 25 million cutlery items that proHeq imports every year from the Asian region. WMF adds besides the significant improvement in the company’s ecological footprint, the paper bags also offer great quality and economic advantages. “The airtight material of polyethylene bags caused the cutlery items to develop a grey tarnish during transportation. We had to manually correct this discolouration at our site in Dornstadt – a time and cost factor that is now completely eliminated,” Schmidt says. The paper bags were developed with an American paper mill. WMF says their environmental aspects remained the primary focus. For more information, visit www.wmf-professional.com Global Coffee Report has launched a LinkedIn Showcase page. Follow HERE for up-to-date news and analysis of the global coffee industry.