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MEO reduces its packagings

4. Environment

Waste management

Context

The packaging of food products represents a significant impact on the environment. Méo, after its involvement in a fair trade line as of 1999, and its joining of Global Compact in 2000, continues its commitment for sustainable development in this area.

Objectives

- Acting on local impacts of its activity

- Reducing the packagings

APPROACH

The "responsible" approach of the coffee merchant concerns the international with a relationship of fidelity, quality and equity with producers, and it also concerns the local with the impacts on the neighborhood (local jobs, consultation with residents, catalyst system to reduce odors, sorting waste towards revaluing lines, for example coffee beans silverskins reused by winemakers or for animal feed, recovery of papers by Elise insertion workshops).

In line with these commitments, Méo has developed, in partnership with Eco-emballage and the Ecole Supérieure en Emballage et Conditionnement de Reims (Packaging and Conditioning Academy of Reims) (ESIEC), a reflection on the eco-design of packagings and the loading of pallets. The weight and volume of the packagings were reduced by decreasing the thickness of the polyethylene layer. The format of the boxes has been reviewed: by increasing by a few centimeters the height of the boxes in which the coffee pods are packaged, 200,000 boxes have been saved, enabling a better filling of the pallets, and fewer trucks on the road for the same volume of products.

CONTRIBUTION TO COMPANY PERFORMANCE

-  Reduced purchasing costs of boxes, and of the tax of contribution to the recycling of the packagings

- Image of the company and pride of the partners.

Benefits

- For 10 years, 11 tons of plastic and 25% less cardboard; 167 pallets per year, thus 5 trucks less

- 50 tons of CO2 avoided

- Behavior of the employees more responsible.

Country
France

MEO

112, quai de lOuest
BP 19
59008 LILLE Cedex

www.meo.fr

Mise à jour le 30/05/2016

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