Food packaging - a contribution to sustainability

Even if your first thoughts about packaging immediately are about the use of packaging materials, then you are still supporting sustainable economies: Packaging can, in a positive sense, contribute to sustainability and thus climate protection. Food waste can be reduced through the careful use of packaging or, ideally, completely avoided.

Packaging can have many advantages:

We use as little packaging material as possible. Family-run company Ölz der Meisterbäcker thinks carefully about its use of resources and acts sustainably - every single day. We have looked at the thickness and size of packaging film for the entire range of Ölz products and reduced these to the minimum necessary. For instance, we have stopped using plastic trays (blister packaging) for our Ölz Milch Brötle Choco and Ölz Mini Schnecken Choco and Creme products. Where blister packaging is necessary, the master bakers at Ölz have looked for more sustainable alternatives and always keep an eye on the latest developments in this area. The best solution must be looked at on a case-by-case basis. Over-packaging - so ‘too much’ packaging - is rigorously avoided.
 

What is meant by the circular economy? 
The circular economy can be boiled down to ‘reduce, reuse, recycle‘. This means that the use of materials should be avoided or reduced, reused and recirculated or recycled to produce a cycle, so reuse.

A sustainable circular economy has positive effects on climate protection. The aim is to reuse and recycle the packaging materials. An essential prerequisite for the circular economy is the recyclability of a packaging material. 

For Ölz der Meisterbäcker, this means:

• a positive factor for the recyclability of Ölz packaging is that there is no contamination of the packaging material caused by the product.
• Packaging material from Ölz der Meisterbäcker is 100% free of composite films, an indispensable attribute for increasing its recyclability .
• When dealing with new products, considerable attention is paid from the start to ‘Circular Design’ to ensure good recyclability – for instance through the use of mono-materials. For example, this can mean using a printed bag without an additional label, thus improving reusability.
• Within the Ölz strategy for packaging materials we are continuously working hard on making further improvements.
   

ARA collects, uses and disposes of recyclable materials throughout Austria. The collaboration between Ölz der Meisterbäcker and ARA (Altstoff Recycling Austria) carefully saves primary resources and energy carriers and prevents the emission of dangerous greenhouse gases. In 2023 , 2,087 tonnes of CO₂ equivalents were saved as a result. This corresponds to the greenhouse gas emissions from more than 24.5 million kilometres travelled by car. It would be enough to circle the Earth more than 500 times. Learn more about our collaboration with ARA.

We have an Ölz working group responsible for issues around packing and which further develops the Ölz packing strategy. Even seemingly small improvement can have a significant long-term effect on packaging savings and optimisations. We are a member of the ECR working group (ECR stands for Efficient Consumer Response). This working group supports the holistic ecological sustainability assessment of packaging and considers the aspects of product protection, environment and circularity.
 

Everyone can do their part. A lot needs to change from the use of packing materials, to their reuse and their disposal. This is something we are constantly working on. Something that each any every one of us can do to help is, for example, ensure the proper disposal of plastic packaging in the yellow bins / bags.