Anyone who has ever had a bike delivered directly to their home will know that a box like this, in which the new piece of splendour arrives, fills an entire paper bin or half a cellar compartment. Dealers face this logistical problem even more. In order to keep just a small set of such shipping boxes in stock, you need a fairly large storage area that contains nothing but cardboard and air. Ultimately, this creates a huge mountain of paper waste that can be recycled, but this also costs energy, water and logistics (energy again).
A small company from the tranquil town of Pöcking on Bavaria's Lake Starnberg wants to change this in the spirit of a genuine circular economy. The company calls itself Circular Logistics. And the idea is not new: a kind of beer crate system for bicycle packaging. Instead of a cardboard box, which in the worst case only survives the journey from the manufacturer to the retailer because it tears, gets wet or ends up in the bin, the Bavarians want to establish packaging that looks very similar to cardboard in the bike industry, which circulates like a beer crate and can be reused very often. But the zero-waste packaging also has other advantages.
Polypropylene instead of cardboard
The biggest difference to the usual cardboard box is the material, which is significantly more robust than cardboard. The grey boxes look very similar to their brown paper brothers and sisters, but are made of polypropylene (PP), 97% of which is already made from recycled material. The plastic therefore combines several advantages over wood fibres:
- More robust than cardboard with lower material thickness
- Cardboard can be reused more than 20 times
- Material can be 100 % recycled
- Material can be repaired by heating
- insensitive to water
- Gentler on materials than cardboard compared to contents (no abrasion)
Above all, the fact that the packaging from Circular Logistics can withstand significantly more and can also be repaired in the event of a tear - the PP plastic is heated and re-welded - makes it somewhat more sustainable and ready for a genuine circular economy.
What's more, the huge box can be folded to a third of its size thanks to its folded structure, which makes it easy to store and dispatch empty packaging.
Comprehensive tests across Germany
Matthias Höfer, one of the founders of Circular Logistics, came up with the idea together with his cousin Christine Collins. She lives in South Africa and actually wanted to develop a transport case for her bikes that would survive a flight. At some point, the idea of launching sustainable packaging came up.
"Every week, we send an old bike across the country, from Bavaria to Hamburg and back, to test our packaging," explains Matthias. "Riese & Müller is also already testing our cardboard packaging in their production. We are already working with Nicolai to subject the material to stress tests." And the idea from Pöcking/South Africa is getting around. According to Matthias Höfer, logistics companies are contacting him because they are also looking for packaging that enables safe transport. If a cardboard box is left standing in the rain, it collapses, if it falls off the loading ramp, it bursts open and has to be replaced. With the packaging from Circular Logistics, this should be different.
Packaging including logistics
The Bavarian company, which was founded a year and a half ago, already offers a logistics service for private individuals and small companies who want to ship bikes. At sendmybike.com You order such PP packaging, put the bike in it and specify a collection date. The recipient then sends the 11 kg packaging back to Circular Logistics free of charge for further use. Repeat!
Made in Europe: Circular packaging saves greenhouse gases
"The boards for our packaging come from near Dresden, where the boxes are also assembled ready for use. In the end, the whole concept has to be "Made in Europe" so that the C02 footprint is also right," explains Matthias Höfer. Now you might ask, but isn't a cardboard box cheaper on balance? The answer: "You have to look at the entire process, because paper recycling, taxes etc. also cost money with conventional cardboard". Circular Logistics has conducted its own study on CO2 consumption. According to Matthias, the results show that with a realistic reuse of 25 times, a reduction in greenhouse gases of around 80 % can be achieved.
And we're not the only ones who think this is a good idea. Also at this year's Eurobike In Frankfurt, the Zero Waste Box was honoured with the Eurobike Award. Imagine a world in which no square metres of cardboard are left to rot in a damp storage room somewhere, but bikes are given their rental box when needed and are allowed to travel in it. This also includes the second-hand bike market.
The BIKE live blog from Eurobike 2024
As last year, the BIKE team, together with our sister magazine TOUR, presented the latest Eurobike products, the events at the trade fair and everything that happened around it. Read everything from the first three days, which were reserved for the trade public, in our live blog. Have fun reading!
Marc Strucken
Editor
