Environment Product packaging First and foremost, our product packaging needs to be functional and provide good protection for our products. Even the best products are of no use if they are damaged before they even reach the customer. That's why we've been developing high-quality packaging solutions for decades – with the aim of finding the perfect balance between conserving resources, protecting products and maintaining efficient processes. The key to sustainable packaging is not only the material itself, but also how it is used. This relates in particular to reuse – one of the sustainability criteria that we defined in 2020 specifically for our packaging. However, our sustainability efforts in the area of packaging go back much further: 30 years ago we introduced reusable transport packaging, which permanently transformed the automated production, logistics and transport of our products. It consists of nylon containers with standardised dimensions that enable products to be automatically filled and removed while also simplifying production processes – both for us internally and for our customers. The reusable transport packaging is available both as ECO-Boxes without internal elements and as ECO-Packs with product-specific inserts. ECO-Boxes are used for bulk goods components and semi-finished parts, as well as for assembled hinges. ECO-Packs are for products which are mainly automatically inserted or removed and, like box and runner systems, are particularly delicate. We therefore equip some ECO-Packs with reusable foam inserts to protect the product as much as possible. Reusable transport packaging is mainly used for internal transport as well as for supplying European OEM customers above a certain volume – in other words, wherever we have to deal with high levels of automation. It has a long service life and is (re) used an average of 50 times in 7 years. Each time it is returned, it is checked, washed and – if no longer suitable for transport – recycled. Hence, it plays an important role in meeting our sustainability criteria for packaging. Proportion of reuse during the reporting period (by product group) Product group Single-use Reused Change from the previous year Hinge systems 93.3 % 6.6 % + 3.4 % Lift systems 87.4 % 12.5 % + 2 % Runner systems 94.9 % 5 % + 3.5 % Box systems 88.5 % 11.4 % + 2.2 % Pocket systems 100 % 0.0 % – Assembly systems 100 % 0.0 % – Other 100 % 0.0 % – 43
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