The Mainz-based company Werner & Mertz has set a global milestone: 1 billion rPET bottles made of 100 per cent post-consumer recyclate have been produced since the start of the Recyclate Initiative. At the same time, the complete conversion of all Frosch bottles to recycled material from the Yellow Bag is beginning.
Werner & Mertz, known for the Frosch brand, has been a pioneer in sustainable packaging for years. Now the Mainz-based company has achieved a historic record: one billion rPET bottles made from fully recycled plastic have been produced and placed on the market through its own Recyclate Initiative. The raw material used comes exclusively from used plastic packaging collected via the Yellow Bag.
During a celebration in Berlin, company owner Reinhard Schneider also announced the next step: As of now all Frosch brand rPET bottles will be completely converted to material from the Yellow Bag. This makes Werner & Mertz one of the first manufacturers in the world to realise true closed-loop recycling in the mass market.
A decade of pioneering work for the circular economy
Werner & Mertz has been promoting the Recyclate Initiative together with partners from industry, NGOs and the recycling sector since 2012. Current partners include the NGO NABU, the plastics specialist Alpla, the packaging company Mondi and, most recently, the waste disposal and recycling company PreZero. In a decade of continuous innovation, milestones such as the first rHDPE bottle made from 100 % Yellow Bag material (2016) or the first recyclable shower gel bottle with rHDPE (2019) have been achieved.
The decisive breakthrough will now follow in 2025: from now on, all Frosch rPET bottles will be made entirely from domestically collected, high-quality recycled plastic. This has been made possible by technical advances in sorting, targeted investments and close coordination along the entire value chain.
„A strong vision, close cooperation and the use of the latest technologies have enabled us to develop a very good and consistent recyclate product despite changing conditions in the Yellow Bag stream.“
Philipp Lehner, CEO of Alpla
Demand for fair political framework conditions
Despite the technical and economic feasibility, Werner & Mertz remains one of the few players to rely on high-quality recyclate. The company cites a lack of political incentives and economic competitive disadvantages compared to virgin plastic as the reason for this.
Werner & Mertz is therefore making clear demands to politicians and the EU, including for a polluter-pays plastic tax, legally binding recycling quotas, a reduction in subsidies for fossil raw materials and Europe-wide certification of imported recyclates. This is the only way to realise a sustainable circular economy in broad industrial application, they say.
Vision for the future: recyclate for all types of packaging
In addition to the successes with PET and HDPE, the company is currently working on the integration of recycled plastics in PP and LDPE packaging. Frosch stand-up pouches already contain 27 per cent recyclate from the Yellow Bag - an important step on the way to fully recyclable, resource-saving packaging solutions, according to Werner & Mertz.
The Mainz-based company is also pursuing the goal of maximum recyclability when it comes to closures: colour pigments have been removed, trigger heads have been developed from monomaterials and even internal components are now partly made from recyclate.
„When developing our products, we always ask ourselves the question: how far can we go in terms of sustainability and the circular economy - without our consumers having to do without anything? In terms of closures, our customers are now ready to accept grey and still enjoy the products - but the intermediate step of colourless closures was important for this.“
Reinhard Schneider (Werner & Mertz owner)
Source: Werner & Mertz
