Just like that received for the “Potz Calc” bottle-to-bottle concept, with which the Group hit the jackpot with the Swiss Packaging Award in 2019. In 2020 it even received the packaging industry’s most important global award, the World Star Award, for “Potz Calc”. “The packaging for limescale remover “Potz Calc” is the first to be made completely from returned Migros bottles. “No-one achieved this before us”, explains Rainer Rohr, Home Care and Nutrition Packaging Development Manager. The Mibelle Group had previously received both awards for the innovative, 100% recycled M Plus Oeco Power Detergent spray bottles.
Fulfilling customers’ wishes and adding value
Demand for ecological packaging is also increasing in the field of beauty. This presents Oliver Weiss, Personal Care & Beauty Packaging Development Manager ad interim, and his colleagues, with exciting challenges. The team fulfils customers’ wishes and adds value with sustainable materials used as sparingly as possible. In an attractive design, of course. Amongst others, the refillable jar, developed back in 2013, has been awarded the Swiss Packaging Award in the Ecology category. In 2013, such packaging was not so important, but now it is all the rage and in great demand. In 2016 it won the Swiss Packaging Award with the Smart-Slide, an easy-to-use and non-drip fastener which can be closed one-handed.
From 2025, only recyclable packaging
Rainer Rohr and Olivier Weiss agree that the Mibelle Group will hit Migros’ target of nothing but recyclable packaging only from 2025. They have already exceeded their milestone targets and others are in touching distance.
In future it will be easier to fully recycle refillable packaging. No easy task because packaging not only has to be sustainable, but also user friendly, safe and robust, appealing and affordable.
The Mibelle Group has high expectations of CO2 recycling. Even now the company is using alcohol (ethanol) obtained directly from CO2 exhaust gases to make detergents. In the near future, the Mibelle Group intends to replace the petroleum currently used to manufacture packaging with ethanol. This protects our climate and conserves resources.
The laundry and dishwashing detergents from vending machines project goes one step further. The pilot project, in which customers at the Bern Marktgasse and Shoppyland Schönbühl branches of Migros in Switzerland can refill their containers at the press of a button, has struck a chord: “Customers just have to refill three times for this to be a more ecological solution than any refill pack.” Rainer Rohr is optimistic that consumers across Switzerland will soon be able to obtain their laundry and washing-up detergents at the push of an environmentally friendly button.
