Toom products in recyclate containers
The DIY chain toom relies on recycled plastic for packaging paints and coatings. In some markets, paper bags for screws are also being tested.
“Sustainability is an important strategic issue at toom and we want to offer our customers alternatives in many areas and product areas. Packaging plays an important role in this context and we see great potential for further improvements,“ explains Kai Battenberg, Senior Manager Sustainability at toom. The company, which belongs to the Rewe Group, was the first German DIY store to convert containers of toom’s own Dispersionsfarbe brand to 100% recycled plastic as early as 2011. Compared to conventional packaging, the buckets reduce carbon dioxide emissions by around 30 per cent. By the end of 2018, around 900 tons of carbon dioxide emissions had been saved simply by switching to recycled containers in the paints and coatings sector.
The company is currently working on other more sustainable products and packaging and will offer the wall paint of toom’s own brand Kreidefarbe as well as the range of toom Xpress renovation paints in recycled containers in the current year. In the course of the ongoing product range restructuring, toom has announced that further alternative measures are planned. Screws and hardware, for example, are sold in bulk, so that customers can purchase the actual quantity they need. Currently, polyethylene bags are also available to customers. In some markets, toom is currently testing more sustainable paper variants in smaller formats.
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In addition to replacing conventional plastics with recyclate, the Cologne DIY chain is also working to reduce the weight and volumes of packaging, switch to certified materials (such as FSC/PEFC or recycled paper), and improve the recyclability of packaging, in order to close important raw material cycles. toom also completely discontinued disposable bags in mid-2018.