Carbon calculation: Mosca unveils 2027 plan for waste reduction and recyclability

30 Jan 2023 --- Mosca has released its first sustainability report revealing its “Nonstop responsibility 2027” environmental strategy. A key focus of the plan to achieve the company’s benchmarks it set is to implement minimal packaging.

The report includes strategies for 2027 and compares the marks to what it has planned to achieve by 2023’s end. It focuses on a materiality analysis, a detailed description of resource consumption and starting points to set targets for new and ongoing projects. 

The company focuses on strapping machines for end-of-line packaging. Part of its goal includes going beyond working with bioPP and other alternative materials. It also involves the use of recyclate from the material cycle. 

The report uses data from Mosca’s 2021 performance as a marker to establish a base for its new goals. “As this is our first report, it mainly provides a status quo and a collection of the relevant topics and developments in 2021. This will change with the upcoming annual reports, providing an overview of the progress over the years,” Ann Mertens, sustainability officer at Mosca, tells PackagingInsights. 

“We chose our goals based on our materiality analysis as depicted in our sustainability report and aligned them with the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. These sustainability goals enable us to track and benchmark our own progress while being held accountable for our impact and efforts.”

Mosca to build wind and solar energy plants for greener energy solutions. Changes thus far
Mosca says its recycled content of PP strapping is already up to 30% from 2021. This year, PP straps wider than 8mm will be manufactured from up to 100% recycled materials. However, narrow straps (5mm) will continue to be produced with up to 30% recycled material.

The company says, “the lack of available recyclate has kept [the company] from reaching [its] goals.”

Mosca is developing a CO2 product calculator to enable customers to estimate and optimize specific packaging solutions’ resource consumption and carbon emissions. The calculator will be able to determine the carbon footprint of straps in the future and draw direct comparisons to different options. 

“We see that [environmental] sustainability is an important factor in many consumer decisions, in fact, all our stakeholders and partners are becoming more and more conscious of their social and environmental impact, and they already change their priorities accordingly,” says Mertens.

2027 goals
The sustainability officer shares that “until this year, our sustainability efforts have only been communicated one at a time. The report gave us the opportunity to demonstrate our collected efforts in a concise and easily accessible format. We also want to increase awareness amongst our stakeholders, including employees and partners and inspire other organizations in our industry.”

The company is set to invest in wind energy to offset its carbon emissions through participation in decarbonization projects. With that, it will implement a global photovoltaic (PV) concept, turning light into electricity and plans to develop wind farms in Germany and solar farms in Malaysia. 

Another method to reduce its environmental impact is to maximize bio-based and recycled materials and minimize the use of fossil fuels. Mosca says it will increase recyclability for its materials and establish a holistic waste management system. Mosca focuses on CO2 reduction by developing a calculator to compare its products. 

To further counteract the consumption of fossil resources, the company is researching renewable raw materials. The challenge is to develop a strap from a suitable material that meets the requirements of industrial strapping and is biodegradable after use.

Mosca has been manufacturing straps at its factory site in Muckental, Germany, using green energy since 2008. The report states the company will continue to comply with and, if possible, exceed the requirements of country-specific waste regulations by 2027. 

Amending waste management 
Before 2023 ends, Mosca is hoping to reduce the amount of packaging by adapting packaging specifications in the spare parts service and introducing a working group to research the most sustainable packaging solutions possible – including the extent to which Mosca can switch to standard packaging from a more environmentally sustainable parcel service provider. 

Mosca is set to increase the amount of electricity generated from its PV systems by developing a global solar energy concept and, in addition to the headquarters site in Waldbrunn, check the buildings at other Mosca sites worldwide for PV installation options. 

The company wants to optimize the overall waste management process through the sufficient description, adaptation, material and resource efficiency and specific process improvements. To do so, it has formed a working group on waste management. 

Mosca says it will reduce the residual waste rate by optimizing waste separation in administrative buildings, uniformly labeling containers and introducing a color coding system for waste bins. 

“We hope to inspire and encourage businesses from our industry as well as adjoining sectors to take a look at their own [environmental] sustainability efforts and join us in sharing them with their stakeholders and partners. This way, we can continue to learn from each other and generate ideas for further [environmental] sustainability efforts,” Mertens concludes. 

By Sabine Waldeck