Signify Wants to Do Without Plastic

Signify, formerly Philips Lighting, is the world market leader in lighting. So it carries weight when the company now announces that it will ban all plastics from the packaging of its consumer products by 2021. The ban is expected to save 2,500 tons of plastic.

As part of its packaging policy, Signify already uses 80 percent recycled paper for its packaging. The company has now begun to remove all plastics from the packaging of consumer products. The project is expected to be implemented by 2021. A decision with weight: According to its own information, Signify can save more than 2,500 tons of plastic per year by eliminating the use of recycled paper. As the company explains, this is equivalent to 125 million PET bottles, which, arranged in a row, would result in a distance of over 8,000 kilometers. In addition, the new packaging is smaller, which means fewer emissions are produced during transport. A total of 6,000 tons of CO2 emissions are to be saved annually.

Changeover increases sales figures

According to Signify, the step meets the expectations of the customers. “I look forward to the moment when we can announce that we no longer use plastic in our packaging,” says Eric Rondolat, CEO of Signify. Where paper-based materials cannot be used, the company is looking for other plastic-free alternatives. For example, the new Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box is packaged using paper foam. Across the product portfolio and the different regions, blister packaging is being replaced by paper-based box packaging. Signify has already started this in the Pacific region. The switch was well received by consumers and has resulted in higher sales.