THE OFFICIAL WEBER NEWS CHANNEL
New in the WEBAcoffea business area is the WEBAseal impulse welding machine, which our sales manager, Stephan Weber, presents to you here in the video in detail in its application.
[ here ] you get directly to the official order form with price list in practical PDF format.
School intern Jacob Liebl roasting coffee. Photo: © WEBER Packaging GmbH, 2020
Jacob Liebl, a 15-year-old student of the Fritz-Ulrich Community School in Heilbronn, is currently spending his one-week school internship with us. Among other things, he learned how to roast green coffee to roasted coffee on a so-called shop or shop roasting machine. The special feature: it stands on a large smoke filter which ensures clean room air.
I never knew roasting coffee was so easy
– Jacob Liebl
His class teacher was able to convince himself of the fact that Jacob is really learning something very practically during a personal visit to our house last Wednesday.
In a feedback session lasting around 30 minutes, which took place in the meeting room of WEBER Packaging GmbH, he noticed quite quickly that Jacob is in good hands and very well integrated in the team of our WEBER family - at least temporarily.
In order to write this blog post in particular, Ingo H. Klett, who is responsible for corporate communications at this innovative medium-sized company, conducted a personal interview with Jacob Liebl and explained to him various methods of editorial research and retrievable information that enhance the news value of a post.
Likewise, Jacob was shown examples of press photos such as his own (shown above) to explain the copyright of the photographer as well as the right to his own picture, the meaning of a caption in this respect or what a model release means in comparison.
In the meantime the inquisitive young man knows that the term communication comes from Latin and is derived from 'communicatio' (lat. for: communication). And that it refers to the exchange or transmission of information which can take place in various ways and or by various means.
Expressed through language and writing, a defined typography as well as images intended for publication such as photos, graphics or illustrations.
The proverbial good reputation, namely maintaining one's 'image' as an individual, institution or company, explains Klett, can best be maintained in communication by telling third parties as exactly as possible "what someone is". And so today, a good-humoured Jacob Liebl leaves us after a successfully completed school internship, not least with the knowledge that 'image' means not least the image that you form of someone.
From Jacob we have - this still as feedback maybe - a very very good one :-)
To go Kultur. Foto: © Paul Siewert auf Unsplash, 2019
As reported by the Federal Environment Agency, the project consortium consisting of the Institut für Energie und Umweltforschung GmbH (ifeu), the Institut für ökologische Wirtschaftsforschung (IÖW) GmbH, non-profit, the GVM - Gesellschaft für Verpackungsmarktforschung mbH and the Klimaschutz+ Stiftung (Climate Protection+ Foundation) had already started work on the research project in August 2017.
"Investigation of the ecological significance of disposable beverage cups for out-of-home consumption and possible measures to reduce consumption".
… ...on the job.
You will get to the result with a click on the green cover!
Cover: © Umweltbundesamt, 2019
Within the framework of this research project ...
the volume of disposable cups for hot drinks in Germany should, as far as possible, be differentiated according to where they are produced
a classification of the waste management relevance with focus on disposable cup systems
the evaluation of the effects on the environment and resources is carried out by means of a screening eco-balance for disposable and reusable cup systems
voluntary and legal measures are derived and analysed with regard to their effect on reducing the volume of disposable beverage cups
In addition, according to the Federal Office, the volume of returnable beverage cups for hot drinks in Germany would be collected and analysed as far as possible.
… is the derivation of recommendations for action that the Federal Environment Agency can communicate to the political level (BMU and Conference of Environment Ministers), business associations and trade, and to consumers.
The results of the study thus confirm our previous position of only and exclusively recommending certain systems such as reusable packaging if the overall ecological balance is positive. You can read more about this in the following press release:
Martin Grath, MdL – Biobäcker und landtagspolitischer Sprecher der Grünen in Baden-Württemberg.
Foto: © Martin Grath, 2019
After an opening ceremony in the morning, shortly before 11:00 a.m. (CET), a group of around 30 people accompanied by the Württemberg pretzel queen and princess visited WEBER Packaging GmbH at the exhibition stand on their official tour.
Led by State Secretary Friedlinde Gurr-Hirsch, MdL – from the Ministry for Rural Areas and Consumer Protection - were followed by Martin Grath, MdL – organic baker from Heidenheim and spokesman for the Greens in the state parliament, Martin Reinhard – state guild master in the state guild association for the Württemberg bakery trade (Landesinnungsverband für das Württembergische Bäckerhandwerk e.V.) and Ulrich Kromer von Baerle, spokesman for the management of Messe Stuttgart.
After a short welcome by Stephan Weber, the Managing Director Sales of WEBER Packaging GmbH, during the coffee roasting, they started talking about the up to 75 percent CO² savings through the use of grass or hay as raw material in the so-called grass paper cup..
Compared to the substituted wood content, hay is processed into a raw material almost entirely without water (< 1 litre H²O per 1,000 kg of raw material) and without any chemicals or the energy input previously associated with them. WEBER press spokesman Ingo H. Klett:
"According to my research, our cups from the new grass-paper mix are currently the most sustainable outdoor coffee cups ever.
Compared to the substituted wood content, hay is processed into a raw material almost entirely without water (< 1 litre H²O per 1,000 kg of raw material) and without any chemicals or the energy input previously associated with them. WEBER press spokesman Ingo H. Klett:
From left to right: Martin Reinhard, State Guild Master of the State Guild Association for the Württemberg Bakery Trade; Friedlinde Gurr-Hirsch, MdL - Parliamentary State Secretary in the Ministry for Rural Areas and Consumer Protection; Ulrich Kromer von Baerle, Speaker of the Management Board of Messe Stuttgart; Stephan Weber, Managing Director Sales of WEBER Packaging GmbH; Photo: Ingo H. Klett for © WEBER Packaging GmbH, 2019
Martin Grath from Heidenheim, spokesman for the Greens in the state parliament, MdL and organic baker Martin Grath from Heidenheim, liked not only the grass paper cup but above all Stephan Weber's message to make a targeted contribution against the wastefulness of food with optimal food packaging. In addition Grath:
"In Vienna, as much bread is thrown away daily as is produced in Graz."
v.l.n.r.: Biobäcker und Grünen-Sprecher Martin Grath, MdL; Ulrich Kromer von Baerle, Sprecher der Geschäftsführung der Messe Stuttgart; Stephan Weber, Geschäftsführer Vertrieb der WEBER Packaging GmbH; Friedlinde Gurr-Hirsch, MdL – Parlamentarische Staatssekretärin im Ministerium für Ländlichen Raum und Verbraucherschutz; Martin Reinhard, Landesinnungsmeister des Landesinnungsverbands für das Württembergische Bäckerhandwerk e. V.; Foto: Ingo H. Klett für die © WEBER Packaging GmbH, 2019
Foto: WEBER Packaging GmbH für © EDEKA Dirnberger, 2019
"We are aware that reusable systems are currently on everyone's lips," says Managing Director Sales, Stephan Weber. Nevertheless, the Swabian family business offers a new type of disposable cup: the so-called grass paper cup.
"This is something that needs to be explained," comments Ingo H. Klett, one of currently almost 230 coffeologists worldwide. It is important to the former full-time freelance journalist that no so-called greenwashing is carried out within the framework of WEBER Corporate Communications, for which he has been responsible since 2011: "For example by glossing over or glorifying problematic things. On the contrary.
The last time the management took up the flag as its highest maxim was in October 2017, it is remarkable. "For us, maximizing benefits comes before maximizing profits," says Stephan Weber and adds: "Of course, like any other business enterprise, we too must make corresponding profits. But the causality is exactly the other way round. This is now confirmed by many studies in the natural sciences. What this means in everyday business is now clear to the entire workforce. Last but not least, both Weber brothers set an example themselves on a daily basis: whoever offers a benefit to third parties automatically makes a profit.
If a small café in the countryside can count on a 70 to 90 percent return rate with regard to a reusable system, this is a good thing. Also finds WEBER. But for a customer with around 120 branches in high-frequency locations and a return rate of less than 30 percent, the bill would look very different:
Around 9,600 to 12,800 double-walled cups, each with a capacity of 0.2 or 0.3 litres, fit on a Euro pallet. They are thin-walled, lightweight and stackable. "Just imagine the same number of returnable cups or even travel mugs in terms of volume", comments Heiko Burk from WEBER Logistik on the illustrative example: "Without going into the significantly higher energy, water and CO² consumption in their production, the combined transport weights, space consumption and the significantly higher logistics costs alone are probably responsible for several truckloads. If not nearly every returnable cup returns to the point of issue, it will be damn difficult to achieve a positive ecological balance.
For many users, the grey area is also a powerful argument that officially still no used packaging is allowed to be taken by guests over a counter into a shop and come into contact with something there. For all of them, such an implementation with reusable cups for hygienic reasons is not possible per se.
The grass-paper cup jumps - as currently probably the most sustainable coffee to go cup of all - right into this niche. Because the outer wall of the double wall consists of a high proportion of grass, the same amount of the formerly used raw material wood can be saved as a very slowly growing raw material. This is equivalent to a saving of 75 percent of the previous CO² emissions. The inclusions of these natural fibres are clearly visible and tangible in the new version.
Mare editor-in-chief Nikolaus Gelpke, who had already made a name for himself as a marine biologist years before his editorial work, argues that the entry of plastics into the world's oceans is currently too much in the media focus. The fact itself is "terrible", he says, but there are three other parameters that would cause even greater damage to nature and the environment. First and foremost are the much-cited CO² emissions:
"We cannot, of course, determine with 100 percent accuracy the factors that most damage our life on Earth. But the fact that a correspondingly high and at the same time unpredictable impact on our atmosphere and environment takes place - in this respect, the much-cited CO² emissions certainly promote the most lastingly damaging processes. In my opinion, the next point that would come immediately after this would be the overfishing of the world's oceans.
Currently, only one company produces the raw material for the paper mix known as grass paper, Creapaper GmbH from Hennef. Its managing director, Uwe D'Agnone, is already well-known within the paper industry like a colorful dog. Several paper mills work with the so-called GRASPAP® Pellets as raw material.
The grass for this comes from EU compensation areas, he says. The hay from this is then pressed purely mechanically and without the addition of water and chemicals, greatly reduced in volume, to produce the very pellets that are marketed at the end of the process under the brand name GRASPAP®.
Whether in the social media or in direct contact with the end consumer: the grass paper cup is popular. Duje Dadic, owner of the coffee roasting company Dylan & Harper in Wiesbaden: "We were virtually overrun after we made the grass paper cup famous." This is certainly not least due to the designer Marina Brockhoff, who gave the new Ecocup its high-quality design.
The cup design is available in German and English. Around a centrally placed calligraphy, small fresh blades of grass subtly painted with artists' colours can be seen in various shades of green.
The outer wall of the grass paper cup in particular is made of the much-cited grass paper. Its paper mix currently has a grass content of around 25 percent.
Some of the paper mills known to WEBER Packaging GmbH are already working with grass content of up to 50 percent in their paper mix for other products. But not in the coffee to go cup. Here WEBER Packaging GmbH still sees a need for improvement on the part of the paper industry.
At the moment, a maximum of 50 percent grass in the total paper mix is regarded as the maximum possible to prevent the paper pulp from tearing during processing or later. For Uwe D'Agnone and the paper mills he supplies, the first priority is therefore constant research into a paper mix that does not break or tear from waste paper and/or virgin fibres in combination with the aforem.
Labeled as "biodegradable", the grass paper cup, like so many other packaging materials, quickly gives the impression that it would be safe in private compost under any conditions. This is by no means the case. The EU standard 13432, which defines the circumstances in more detail, is subject to conditions that only industrial composting plants in this country could meet when composting. However, if, like the team at WEBER Packaging GmbH, one looks for such possibilities, disillusionment very quickly sets in. Not a single plant has yet been found which offers the long rotting times required to compost the material properly at certain temperatures, humidity levels and with appropriate mechanical processing and regular repositioning. In conclusion, the only remaining route is thermal recycling, i.e. waste incineration.
Nevertheless, WEBER product management clearly favours its grass paper cup as the optimum: the mentioned savings in its production alone justify its special position.
The grass paper cup is available in two sizes. In addition to numerous regular lid variants, there are also those made of a bio-polymer (PLA) available for it, which are marked as "compostable". Here too, the team at WEBER Packaging GmbH explicitly points out once again that only individual waste management companies in individual regions could recycle a material such as PLA, if at all. Consumers are therefore urged to inform themselves about local waste management systems. A special search engine for this purpose has been set up by the Nature Conservation Association of Germany.
Eine Seite aus der aktuellen fizzz barista Jahrespublikation 2019. Copyright: Meininger Verlag GmbH, 2019
Reusable instead of disposable. 320,000 disposable coffee cups are used by the Germans per hour. A huge "garbage mountain to go", which is now being fought.
Meininger Verlag GmbH, for example, announces on the homepage of its fizzz magazine the article that currently also reports on our grass paper cup.
Andrés und ich nach unserem „Farmers Talk“. Foto: © WEBER Packaging GmbH, 2019
My travel report
At the end of my time in El Salvador, I interviewed coffee farmer Andrés Quintanilla from the Departamento San Miguel and asked him the questions that the readers of the blog series about my stay in El Salvador had previously written to me.
But you can see for yourself...
Mein Interview mit deutschen Untertiteln
Ein Videoclip der © WEBER Packaging GmbH, 2019
My original interview in English language
Ein Videoclip der © WEBER Packaging GmbH, 2019
I would like to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart who made this exciting time possible for me. First of all, my dual partner, WEBER Packaging GmbH, who gave me time off; the Quintanilla family, who welcomed me so warmly into their family and thus gave me a second home; and Doctor Schwarz, who established contact with Andrés Quintanilla.
