Responsibility starts with filling and packaging
How sustainability can work in the beverage industry
By Kai Acker, CEO, KHS GmbH
The following figure is almost impossible to imagine: in 2025, it’s estimated that around 430 billion liters of packaged water will be consumed all over the world. And this number is expected to rise. For lifestyles are becoming more urban and the global population is growing – and with this also the need for water and other beverages. This means that the demand for packaging systems is also increasing. At the same time, regulatory requirements governing recycling and sustainability are becoming stricter and consumers all the more critical in this regard. As a leading supplier of filling and packaging systems for the beverage industry, we cemented the various issues of sustainability into our strategy early on. After all, a good 50% of beverage production emissions are generated during filling and packaging and by the packaging material itself.
Key lever: innovative and resource-efficient packaging
Beverages must be packaged on consideration of hygienic, logistical and aesthetic aspects. The packaging materials used depend on the product and market – PET plastic containers, cans and bottles made of glass are the most frequently used options worldwide. At about 40%, the packaging materials alone account for a high proportion of the emissions produced by the beverage industry. These are thus a key lever when it comes to reducing the carbon footprint in this section of the value chain.
At KHS, the development of packaging systems and solutions is one of its core areas of business. In the past few years, we have chiefly strived to minimize the amount of material used in PET bottles and maximize their recyclability. We have set standards throughout the industry with our lightweight bottles made of recycled PET. Our bottles require considerably less material and thus generate approximately 20% fewer CO2 equivalents than conventional PET bottles. And that’s not all. Less material also means lower costs for the customer.
The notion that less is often more therefore also applies to secondary packaging. With the Nature MultiPack technology developed by KHS, for example, cans and PET bottles are held together with just a few dots of adhesive – with no need for any additional secondary packaging whatsoever. This packaging system uses up to 85% less material than cardboard packs, thus protecting our environment and preventing bulky packaging waste from piling up in consumer kitchens.
Consistent circular economy
Yet cutting down on materials and preventing waste isn’t enough in itself. We also need to consistently promote the circular economy. With a recycling rate of over 97% for its PET bottles, Germany is doing very well here, and the returnable glass system has also proved its worth. On an international scale, however, the situation is quite different. The demand for PET is on the increase, especially in developing and newly industrialized countries. Functioning circular economy systems and standards are thus all the more important.
At KHS, we set course for circularity some time ago and systematically began to close the various recycling loops. Our efforts in this field range from PET container systems that often consist of 100% recyclate to a coating method we have developed for PET bottles that enables considerably lighter bottles to be used while retaining the quality of the filled product. This coating can be completely washed off during the recycling process to produce pure PET that can be fully reused. We also pay attention to circularity in the engineering of our plant equipment. Our machines weigh several metric tons and largely consist of steel. It’s thus all the more essential to include as many recyclable components as possible. At the end of their service life, KHS machines can simply be separated into their individual parts and recycled by material type.
Another aspect here is the total cost of ownership or TCO, one of the key figures for machines of this kind. This describes the overall cost of a machine throughout its entire life cycle. KHS lines and systems are usually operated over the course of many years. Energy and resource efficiency are thus central criteria in our product development. We also provide extensive modernization measures for existing machines that can significantly lengthen the operational lifetime and greatly improve the energy efficiency of older machinery.
Sustainability can only be achieved together
As a company rich in tradition, we can look back on over 150 years of innovation. KHS has left its mark on the beverage industry with its numerous inventions. We’re proud of this fact. More importantly, this encourages us to continue to shape the industry in this pioneering role. We want to support the beverage sector and our customers on their way to a sustainable future. Our 5,600-plus colleagues across the globe strive to do this every single day. The aforementioned examples show that sustainability can only be achieved when we work together: namely when a sustainable innovation improves a product, when it creates a specific benefit for consumers – and when it’s also a business case for our customers.
