Global Goal: “Zero Waste to Landfill”

Plastics, paper and other organic materials are simply too valuable to throw away at the end of their useful life. Instead of dumping, these useful materials can be recycled into their original form, or into completely new products.
Why does dumping – also known as “landfilling” – pose a multiple risk to our environment? 

  • It aggravates the global greenhouse effect
  • It contributes to marine pollution
  • It represents a waste of valuable materials
  • And is therefore a very real burden on the life of generations to come.

At Beiersdorf, we take a “Zero Waste to Landfill” approach for our production facilities and warehouses, which prioritizes the avoidance, reduction and reuse of different types of waste. Right across all our manufacturing sites, we work continually to raise the percentage of waste we recycle. At the same time, we are constantly reducing the percentage of waste types earmarked for incineration. We regularly review and optimize our waste avoidance, collection and separation measures. All of the above support us in achieving our goal of progressively moving up the “waste pyramid”, and avoiding the creation of waste in the first place.
As part of our “We care.” sustainability strategy from 2015, we already eliminated the landfill of waste from all of our European production locations. This waste is recycled, or disposed of in modern waste incineration plants.

Pyramid from most favored to least favored option of recycling waste

Beyond Europe too, we’re developing alternatives to the landfill disposal of waste for our production sites, and continue to push this in our Asia Pacific, Near East and Latin America Regions. Today these locations already make a valuable contribution to constantly raising the percentage of the production waste we recycle.
The same applies to the sometimes unavoidable waste resulting from the disposal of finished products: Here we pursue the goal of donating usable products to a good cause, rather than destroying them – and we’re constantly expanding this globally binding initiative under the slogan “We don’t waste, we donate”.

Optimized Production Process

4 deodorants NIVEA

In a joint project together with a partnering supplier, we’ve successfully optimized our aerosol packaging. This reduces production waste without the need to alter the specifications of the can. Since 2015, this has enabled us to save around 180 tonnes of aluminum every year. What’s more, this has also cut CO2 equivalent emissions by around 2,000 tonnes annually.