Small cause - sometimes quite a big effect: anyone who has ever hung over the handlebars of their racing bike at the end of their tether, wringing every last ounce of energy out of their legs, will know the feeling and the significance of tearing open one of these little sachets with trembling fingers, squeezing the contents down their throat - and feeling their spirits return a little later. That little kick at the right time has already propelled many athletes over the next mountain or to the finish line.
However, the advantage of the handy portions, which can be easily transported in a jersey or top tube pocket, also has a disadvantage: the packaging effort is enormous and the amount of packaging waste is considerable - something you unfortunately have to realise all too often along heavily frequented cycle routes and at cycling events when countless empty gel or bar foils lie in the ditch.
Lean processes against unfavourable transport routes
Sports nutrition manufacturers can do relatively little about this bad habit. But they do have the option of making their products and packaging and their production as environmentally friendly and sustainable as possible. This starts with the processes in the background and does not end with the formulation of the ingredients and the design of the packaging. Squeezy Marketing Manager Ingo Kruck explains: "When selecting raw material suppliers for our sports nutrition, we pay attention to lean processes and try to avoid unnecessary or unfavourable transport routes and means of transport. This also applies to the transport packaging of our products, storage and dispatch to our warehouse. This may not be immediately apparent to the customer when using our products, but it makes a difference to the amount of packaging required."
Both when shipping to business customers and to end customers who buy sports nutrition in the Squeezy online shop, the company already uses outer packaging and fillers made from recycled material to pad the boxes almost without exception. "The reuse of packaging material," explains Kruck, "has reached a level close to 100 per cent by 2022."
Less packaging waste, more recycling at Squeezy
Squeezy sources most of the ingredients for its energy gels from Germany and maltodextrin from France. When it comes to the film for the sachets, Kruck admits that it is not yet possible to do without components from the Far East - but points out that the monofilm is recyclable, unlike the packaging of many competitors who use so-called multilayer sachets, which strictly speaking cannot and must not be disposed of in the yellow bin or yellow bag, but due to the ignorance of many consumers still end up in it instead of in the residual waste. The cardboard box in which the Squeezy sachets are packaged can be disposed of with waste paper; the plastic stickers currently still used are removed during the recycling process. However, Squeezy is planning to switch to single-origin boxes in the future.
For other packaging, such as for soluble beverage powder, Squeezy uses so-called bio-plastic for the can body. This plastic can be made from biogenic raw materials such as sugar cane. According to Squeezy, it uses sugar cane that is produced according to the principles of organic farming without the addition of synthetic pesticides and fertilisers. In a complex process, cellulose is extracted from the plant material and converted into a polymer. The resulting material is known as "bioplastic" and has similar properties to conventional plastic, but is biodegradable.
What does biodegradable mean?
In this context, "biodegradable" means that this plastic can be decomposed by microorganisms and fungi in natural environments. However, it is also true that the decomposition process in the home garden and compost hardly works or takes far too long. Professional composting plants that could efficiently utilise such material are still very rare. Squeezy cans for powdered drinks can and must currently be disposed of in the yellow bin.
Biodegradable plastics are also not suitable as packaging for all foods, as they are easily colonised by degrading microorganisms, which could also contaminate the product or food under certain circumstances.
Whether such bio-plastics are actually more environmentally friendly than conventional plastic is the subject of some heated debate among experts. It is undisputed that less CO2 is released during the production and disposal of bioplastics. On the other hand, the agricultural production of the raw materials on an industrial scale pollutes the soil and takes arable land away from food production. If bio-plastic ends up in the environment as waste, it is not one iota more environmentally friendly than conventional plastic.
Refilling is better than throwing away
With the "Dispenser" and "Refiller" duo of drinking and refill bottles for the energy gels, Squeezy has been pursuing an approach to reduce packaging waste for some time now - a good idea in itself to reduce the number of gel sachets flying around. The two bottles are already made from recyclable PET plastic - but not yet from recycled plastic. Why is that? "Both products date back to the time before the start of our sustainability campaign," explains Ingo Kruck. "They are easy and technically simple to recycle polymers. We believe that sustainability is already pretty well ensured here, primarily through reuse. However, once the current stock has been sold off, we also want to use biodegradable organic material."
Squeezy developed in the in-house laboratory
Apart from the packaging, product development takes place in the Squeezy team in Braunschweig, with the management, product management and selected retail partners and athletes generally involved. Development takes place in the Squeezy in-house laboratory. The basis is always the original basic formula of the gel by Prof Timothy Noakes from South Africa, where stomach tolerance is always the top priority. Squeezy boss Roger Milenk also has extensive expertise in sports nutrition, its functional principles and application, and has been passing this knowledge on to amateur, amateur and professional athletes in seminars for decades. Dr André Albrecht from the Institute for Training Optimisation in Wolfsburg also plays an important role. As a coach and former successful triathlete and runner, the biochemist and sports scientist forms the interface between the formula and the athlete.
Conclusion: Squeezy has already taken some important steps on the way to becoming a sustainable and sustainably operating company, although Ingo Kruck admits: "At the moment, it is not yet technically possible for us to map all products and processes in a completely environmentally friendly way. Unfortunately, the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine were also highly problematic decelerators for us, the effects of which are still reverberating in the area of raw materials for products and packaging. Nevertheless, the new packaging and reusable products are an important first step and also an important personal concern for all of us."
Thomas Musch
Publisher
