Doing what’s right

On Thursday, 30 August, Vögeli AG organized the event “Products 5.0 – Are Your Products Future Proof?” and welcomed almost 70 guests who were all fascinated at the end.

In workshops, specialists from ETH Zürich and EPEA Switzerland supported the participants to find ways in which our society will not have to give up luxury and comfort despite a shortage of resources – with products that are future proof.

Saskia Harthoorn and Anita van Rozen from the embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands demonstrated how the Dutch want to secure the future of their society by transforming their recycling management system by 2050.

Based on the Cradle to Cradle® concept, Katja Hansen, Director of the Healthy Printing Initiative, demonstrated how we can also master our greatest challenges with the correct use of our intelligence.

Paper – a natural product?

According to Katja Hansen, global paper consumption is constantly increasing, and will continue to do so. The reasons for this are above all the substitution of plastic and online shopping, which drives the use of cardboard packaging first and foremost. This makes it urgently necessary that we use our paper resources with care. There are, however, major quality problems when it comes to paper recycling. For example, recycled paper cannot be used for food packaging because the toxic chemicals it contains could transfer to the food. For similar reasons, waste created during the recycling process needs to be treated as hazardous waste.

Vögeli AG, with its Cradle to Cradle Certified™ printed materials, is the first and, until now, only company in Switzerland that can manufacture printed materials that are recyclable and therefore healthy and safe for the biological cycle.