Good for the conscience
Protect the environment with every purchase thanks to our recyclate packaging

Gühring is starting to gradually introduce sustainable packaging. The packaging is made from a special type of plastic made from 100 percent recycled plastic waste. This makes Gühring the first German tool manufacturer to use recycled material for its packaging, saving the environment 234 tonnes of newly produced plastic every year.

12 billion tonnes. This is how much the “plastic mountain” that humans have produced in the space of just 100 years will weigh in 2050. That’s the weight of the entire population of the globe – times 40. Packaging material forms over a third of this mountain and at the moment only a tiny fraction of it is recycled or incinerated. This means that 79 percent of our plastic ends up in landfills or directly in the environment. So, by 2050, there will be more plastic floating in the oceans than fish. Gühring does not want to participate in this plastic flood anymore. Just as the tool manufacturer is constantly on the lookout for new innovations in the field of cutting tools, Gühring also wants to break new ground when it comes to packaging.

Gühring supplies 95 percent of its products in plastic packaging. That is because plastic is the only material able to perfectly protect the high quality cutting tools from damage and reactions with other elements during transport. “So, we thought: How do we get our precision tools safely to the Buying tools, protecting the environment: Packaging made from 100% recycled plastic customer and still protect the environment?” explains Dirk Seiffert, Head of Central Functions in Product Management at Gühring. The answer? Recyclable packaging solutions made from 100 percent recycled plastic. The raw material for this packaging forms what is known as post-consumer recyclate (PCR). This is made from plastic waste, which private households in Germany dispose of via the yellow bag recycling scheme and machines for returning plastic bottles.

A never-ending cycle
Plastic, but make it sustainable please

Plastic has a bad reputation. However, switching to plastic-free packaging is not that easy: According to a life cycle assessment study by “Denkstatt”, if all companies replaced plastic packaging with other materials, the amount of waste would increase by up to 360 percent. Energy consumption would more than double and CO₂ emissions would be 2.7 times higher. This is mainly because the lightweight material uses very little fuel during transport. The problem? We use resources such as oil, natural gas and coal to produce new plastics. We protect these finite natural resources by recycling the plastic after use instead of disposing of it.

This granulate is purchased by rose plastic AG, which Gühring works with as a partner. The family-owned company has been producing recyclable packaging for over 65 years and is considered the global market leader for the production of plastic packaging for tools. Only recyclable plastics are used at rose plastic, and thanks to single-type production processes, the internal recycling rate is almost 100 percent. “We chose rose plastic as our partner because the company is very established in the field of recyclable packaging solutions,” says Dirk Seiffert. “This means that you don’t have to develop a product together first; instead, you can rely on a finished, tried-and-tested product right from the start.”

Grey is the new black

The functionality of PCR packaging is in no way inferior to conventional plastic packaging: It is very robust, can absorb shocks and provide effective protection against moisture, dust and oil. When it comes to price, Gühring customers will not notice the new sustainable solution, but instead receive a free “environmental bonus” on top of their tools, so to speak.