We want our customers’ orders to arrive in tip-top condition, making packaging a cornerstone of storage and shipping. As well as using sustainable packaging materials, we are now also examining dyes and adhesives more closely. Our goal: 100% sustainable packaging by 2025.

Shipping packaging. Our shipping boxes are made from 100% FSC® certified cardboard. Our mailing bags are made from at least 80% post-consumer recycled plastics and carry the German eco certification “Blue Angel” (Blauer Engel). We constantly revaluate and optimise our shipping packaging with the aim of reducing materials. 

Product packaging. Since 2017, we’ve been working with our suppliers to replace polybags used for textile packaging with more sustainable alternatives. We started by using recycled bags made from production waste for some of our product ranges. But we’ve come a long way since then. In 2021, we switched to using recycled polybags made from household waste. Following a successful test phase across our markets, all product packaging will be made from certified post-consumer recycled plastics from 2022.

In cooperation with Fashion for Good, we carried out research into ground-breaking new alternatives for recycled product packaging.  The very first circular solution for polybags was identified as part of a pilot project with representatives from the industry. Innovative technology by the company Cadel Deinking removes dye and glue from post-consumer waste so the transparency and quality of recycled polybags is on par with their conventional counterparts. Our logistics hubs are currently examining how we can use insights from the pilot going forward. 

We test new packaging ideas whenever we can. Our homeware collection offers bedlinen wrapped in so-called self fabric packaging. These small bags are made from bedlinen production cut-offs and can be reused by customers, saving 2.5 tonnes of plastic annually.  We hope to roll out the idea across other product groups soon.

Catalogue paper. Paper for our catalogues and flyers is sourced centrally by the Otto Group. Our paper strategy was geared at upping the percentage of FSC® certified paper to 60% by 2020, but we exceeded our target when a figure of 64% was recorded in 2019.