Thyssenkrupp and Neopac pioneer CO2-reduced steel cans for Ricola herbal drops range

11 Mar 2022 --- German tinplate manufacturer Thyssenkrupp Rasselstein is launching the “world’s first” food can made of carbon-reduced bluemint steel in collaboration with Swiss packaging company Hoffmann Neopac and cough drop producer Ricola.

The three companies say environmental sustainability and conservation of resources are part of a collective corporate strategy and have joined forces to develop the first food can made of CO2-reduced packaging steel.

Food cans made of steel “already stand out,” they say, with recyclability of almost 100% and closed recycling cycles. Now, a novel manufacturing process saves “a considerable amount” of carbon emissions.

New bluemint steel
In the joint project, Thyssenkrupp Rasselstein supplies the CO2-reduced packaging steel, Hoffmann Neopac produces and prints the cans using solar power, and Ricola relies on energy from renewable sources for the production and filling of their herbal drops.

“By using our new bluemint steel, CO2 emissions from can production can be significantly reduced,” explains Dr. Peter Biele, CEO of Thyssenkrupp Rasselstein. “Making our product even more [environmentally] sustainable.” The German tinplate manufacturer produced tinplate from bluemint steel for the first time in this project.”

The collaboration is attempting to reduce the carbon intensity of steel packaging.In its steel production, the so-called HBI is used with an already reduced sponge iron. This process reduces coal use for the blast furnace’s reduction process. The result is a real and globally effective reduction in carbon emissions.

“This project is an important step toward achieving our climate targets,” says Biele. Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe has pledged to be “completely climate-neutral” by 2045.

Steel is currently one of the most energy-intensive materials on earth, accounting for almost 10% of global carbon emissions annually.

Renewable energy
Hoffmann Neopac produces its cans in Switzerland with 100% electricity from renewable sources while working on its own decarbonization program, which also saves carbon emissions in can production.

“For us, it was important to make the packaging of our herbal drops more [environmentally] sustainable. That [motivation] is why we are the first company in our market to use CO2-reduced food cans,” says Dr. Martin Messerli, CEO of Ricola.

For decades, environmentally sustainable action has formed an important decision-making basis for Ricola’s corporate management, says the company. Since 2016, the Swiss herbal drops manufacturer has been producing electricity from hydropower, and from the group’s point of view, the “next logical step” was to optimize the supply chain and the herbal drops packaging.

“By switching to a CO2-reduced can for our herbal drops specialties, Ricola is also responding to increased demand from consumers, who are paying more attention to the carbon footprint of their purchases,” says Messerli.

The first herbal drops in the CO2-reduced can will leave the factory in Laufen, Switzerland, at the beginning of March and will be available in stores from April or May.

By Louis Gore-Langton

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