Sustainable packaging-reduction by 80%

Praxis has actively cooperated in the development of the sector sustainability plan ‘Verpakken doe-het-zelf 2015-2018’, as a member of the association of stores in the DIY industry. One of the main goals of this was, where possible, to ban the skin card packaging from the DIY market in 2018. Skin card packaging is used to package a product between printed cardboard and a film. This has the disadvantage that cardboard and films cannot be separated in different waste streams and so they are incinerated as residual waste. A baseline survey in 2016 counted 156 products in skin card. Following an effective phase-out plan in which skin cards were replaced by recyclable packaging, by November 2018 only 27 products were still in skin card packaging present in the store. This is a reduction by 80%. The remaining products are mainly remnants with a low turnover rate.

Maxeda DIY Group, in collaboration with other DIY chains, has developed a standard for sustainable packaging ‘Standaard Duurzaam Verpakken’ for all it's store formulas. This standard contains guidelines for buyers and suppliers to minimise the environmental impact of product packaging. A number of quick wins were filtered out of these agreements, which were shared with every buyer in 2018. They then communicated this to the suppliers. Some quick wins are: where possible, do not use packaging, do not use double packaging, use recycled material, do not use 'staples' in packaging and placing a disposal guide or recycling symbol on the packaging.