Unverpackt 2.0 starts: New projects to support precycling in the food trade
From April, the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development (HNEE) will follow on from the successful "Packaging-free supermarket" project and continue its research work: with the help of the German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU), the Unverpackt 2.0 project aims to promote packaging-reduced shopping by standardising practical solutions. There are also plans to set up an advice and networking centre for packaging reduction on behalf of the Brandenburg Ministry of Agriculture and the Environment (MLUK) in order to promote the development of reusable alternatives.
When Germany reached a peak of 17.8 million tonnes of packaging waste in 2014, the opening of shops offering goods without packaging or in reusable packaging became a possible approach to reduction. Since then, over 80 such shops have opened in Germany: Customers use their own or locally purchased containers into which they fill goods. The primary aim is to reduce packaging waste at the retail level and during individual consumption, as well as to buy food according to need. In addition to these "pure" unpackaged shops ("concept shops"), there is an increasing number of shops in which part of the product range is offered unpackaged ("drop-ship shops"). In order to reduce the amount of packaging waste, employees at the University for Sustainable Development (HNEE) are researching how the negative trend of increasing packaging can be countered in an entrepreneurial way. Since 1 April, the Packaging Reduction in the Food Industry/Sustainable Consumption working group (Department of Sustainable Business Management in the Agricultural and Food Industry) has been continuing its successful work with two new projects under the leadership of Dr Melanie Kröger, Prof. Dr Jens Pape, Marcel Schuricht and Paula Wörteler. The Unverpackt 2.0 project, funded by the German Federal Environmental Foundation (Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt, DBU), aims to professionalise packaging-reduced purchasing with the help of the Unverpackt Association, wholesalers, manufacturers and suppliers of the 300 or so unpackaged shops in Germany: It is looking for practical solutions via jointly developed standards. As a central point of contact for regional companies and initiatives in the food sector for packaging reduction through reusable solutions, a supra-regional advice and networking centre for packaging reduction could show what activities already exist in this area. Further objectives are the joint development of measures to further strengthen existing and new reusable alternatives and the networking of companies and initiatives in the food sector.
The research project follows on from the flagship project "The packaging-free supermarket", which pioneered research into concepts for unpackaged shops and packaging-reduced consumption. "With the unpackaged project, we have generated fundamental knowledge about the challenges and hurdles of packaging-free shopping and identified the main potential for improvement of 'unpackaged'," says Prof Dr Jens Pape. After an initial attempt, the research is to be deepened in order to continue to successfully promote sustainable solutions for service providers and consumers. "There has been a lack of uniform processes and standards in the industry to date, particularly in the area of procurement," says Dr Melanie Kröger. "We now want to develop these together with practitioners." The team wants to contribute its expertise, particularly at the interface between production, marketing and consumption, by expanding skills and working on relevant solutions in consultation with practitioners.
About the project
Unpackaged 2.0 - Professionalisation of packaging-reduced purchasing through standardisation of practical solutions:
In terms of content, the project takes up the results of the "The packaging-free supermarket" project and builds on the previous work. The project partners are the Unverpackt Association as well as wholesalers, manufacturers and suppliers of the 300 or so unpackaged shops in Germany. The aim is to professionalise and improve the procurement of unpackaged shops through jointly developed standards. This can take place in the areas of reusable systems, hygiene and processes.
Sponsor: Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU)
Duration: 30 months (from 1 April 2021)
Funding volume: just under 300,000 euros
About the person
Prof. Dr Jens Pape has been a professor at HNEE since 2008, specialising in and teaching "Sustainable Business Management in the Agricultural and Food Industry" at the Faculty of Landscape Management and Nature Conservation and Dean of the Faculty of Landscape Management and Nature Conservation since 2011.
Dr Melanie Kröger is a researcher at the Faculty of Landscape Management and Nature Conservation. She most recently coordinated the BÖLN project "The packaging-free supermarket: status and prospects. On the opportunities and limits of precycling in food retail".
In December 2020, in collaboration with Prof Dr Jens Pape and research assistant Alexandra Wittwer, she published the book "Simply leave it out? A scientific reader on the reduction of plastic packaging in the food trade".
Further information:
About the Unverpackt e.V. - Association of unpackaged shops
The Unverpackt e.V. - Verband der Unverpackt-Läden is the professional association of unpackaged shops in Germany and the German-speaking EU. It was founded on 21 April 2018 in Nuremberg. The purpose of the association is, among other things, to promote the interests of its members and a fair and welfare-oriented economy. Unverpackt e.V. strengthens the zero waste philosophy and awareness of environmental problems as well as waste-avoiding ways of consuming and doing business. It pursues its goals in particular by expressing the common positions and interests of its members to politics, business and society through public relations work and the exchange of information and experience between members.