Innovation

Companies are looking for sustainable alternatives and ways to reduce their waste. Moonen Packaging offers an excellent, circular solution: Happy Plastic for companies that want to start working on sustainability actively. It is the way to recycle your LPDE film.

"We set up a compactor at customers' premises where they can put film in, and afterward, a block of the film comes out. We take that block back when we deliver and make new bags out of it. We then deliver those back to the customer where they can put film in again," one of the company's co-founders, Roland van Bussel. This makes it clear that it is a radical innovation.

It makes the benefits clear. First, you no longer have any costs for plastic waste because Moonen Packaging collects plastic bales. Secondly, Moonen Packaging takes care of the entire process, from the delivery of the bags to transportation. Thirdly, you save CO2 and raw materials because your LPDE film is recycled and transport is combined. This saves journeys and, therefore, CO2. Those benefits align with Moonen Packaging's goal: "we want to reach 100% renewable products, not painkillers. We do not want to add CO2 to the chain." So the innovation was developed to fight climate change by promoting sustainability.

Inspiration

"Gé Moonen was a director and was always working on sustainability. When he left, we hired a party to infuse sustainability into our company. We can never match Gé's level, nor do we want to. We want all employees to participate. We started with elementary courses for everyone, and eventually, a kind of leadership team emerged from that. Those also learned to funnel ideas into real projects, like Happy Plastic," Roland van Bussel said during the interview. These create the sustainability strategy, which also goes hand in hand with the financial system, such as sales margins and profits. It used to be two worlds: you chose sustainability or profit. Nevertheless, Moonen Packaging believes it can be both.

Since Gé Moonen came to the helm, the company has been focused on sustainability. Gé Moonen was very critical of this. His first slide at every presentation was always a grave: "Here rests Gé Moonen, responsible for X tonnes of waste." That's where it started, Moonen packaging built quite a lead, and now everyone is working on it. They want to remain leaders in sustainability. Nor do they mind more companies approaching their level; in terms of sustainability, they are pretty far. There is still a lot to be achieved, though. We still sell too much packaging. Moonen packaging also has trucks driving around with the slogan: "the best packaging is no packaging, but if you do need packaging, Moonen is the solution."

Overall impact

"We want to move towards 100% renewable products, not planet painkillers. We don't want to add CO2 to the chain," Roland said during the interview. The company's overall goal is to drastically reduce the impact of CO2 emissions. Eventually, use 100% renewable products and add no CO2 to the chain. In doing so, logistics and sustainability go hand in hand. Through Happy Plastic's innovation, the company manages to reuse all plastic bags, a circular concept. Collecting and composting sugarcane cups also creates renewable products. 37% of the range consists of renewable raw materials. And these are not virgin materials or virgin recycled materials. Moonen's goal is to use 60% renewable raw materials by 2026 and 75% by 2030. To eventually use 100% renewable raw materials and no longer emit CO2. You don't see immediate results in the short term, but in the long time, there really are results, which can also be seen from the certificates Moonen obtained.

At the moment, Moonen packaging is not there yet, but they are doing everything they can to achieve the goal of 0% CO2 emissions. For this, they received a second Lean & Green star in 2014. This double star is the reward for reducing CO2 emissions in Moonen's business chain. As such, they have already achieved a 49.6% reduction. Their building also has an energy label A++++. The gas-free construction with solar panels is completely CO2-neutral.

So we can conclude that the net positive impact remains limited but will increase enormously shortly. Moonen Packaging is economically viable, contributes to a healthy society, and improves human well-being.

Business benefit

“The driver of the happy plastic isn’t to earn a lot of money, but the driver is to create a connection with the customers.” In the short run, the innovation did not benefit the business because you always start small and grow to something bigger within an innovation. In the long run, despite not prioritizing making a profit, we noticed that our financial results were positively affected by this innovation. Even though sustainable packaging is more expensive than regular packaging, the invention provided a growing customer base due to our connection with our customers and the ever-increasing value of sustainability and sustainable advice.

The shareholders within Moonen, normally finance-driven, are now strengthened by private equity clubs. These private equity clubs attach great importance to sustainability within the company. “Making profit for the shareholders is important, but sustainable business is necessary to the corporate value.”

Happy plastic also caused an increase in the well-being and awareness of sustainability of employers. “You don’t need to be afraid to try.” They try many things, with many failures, but they keep trying, and ultimately some ideas positively impact the entire company. This causes a growing reputation which makes it easier for them, relative to other companies, to hire new employers because they are known for their sustainability, which is becoming an increasing priority of applicants.

So we can say that there is quantum leadership because the leader represents mindfulness. Happy plastic also creates an advantage for Moonen, the customers, the shareholders, and the employees. So happy plastic is full-spectrum flourishing.

Social and environmental benefit

An average of seven packages are opened per consumer every day. These packages are often not reusable and therefore belong to waste. It is an important global problem that requires attention. Companies want to reduce their waste, and Moonen Packaging offers the solution with Happy Plastic. Companies that generally consider plastic film as waste can now recycle it optimally into raw materials. The renewable materials derived from the system can then be used to make new plastic without once again having to use 'virgin' raw materials. Moonen Packaging thus reduces companies' waste costs and CO2 emissions and no longer has to extract new raw materials for the plastic film itself. In this way, they not only reduce their ecological footprint but help to reduce that of the entire chain.

Innovation has not only had an impact on companies but also on consumers. Moonen Packaging supplies a lot to supermarkets, from bags to packaging. A supermarket sells directly to the consumer, so their impact is also direct. "In a supermarket, we sell directly to the consumer, so our impact is also direct." They collect the recycled waste and convert it into reusable raw materials, from which they make new products. Those products end up in the supermarket, where they thus make a direct contribution to society in terms of sustainability.

"It's not always about money; an innovation should not always be profit-driven." Moonen Packaging does not only financial accounting but also CO2 accounting. "We want to convey the message: sustainability is more important than profit to our customers and staff." Moonen Packaging is not just an ordinary packaging producer; they distinguish itself by everything around it, such as the customer links they make and the advice on sustainability. In this way, Moonen Packaging contributes even more to society, and they also make the rest of their environment aware of sustainability and how to improve it.

Interviews

Roland van Bussel, Operations Director

Roland van Bussel, Operations Director