Hoffmann

Hinged lid can / Source: Hoffmann

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WHAT WE SAY:

If you want strength and recyclability, tin packaging is the obvious choice. Endlessly recyclable, it’s used to package everything from mints to pet food to coffee.

But there’s one major problem: it takes around 770 kilograms of coal to make one ton of steel, the material used for plating tin. Not content with the high-carbon cost, Swiss manufacturer Hoffmann has begun to produce its metal tins using CO2-reduced material and 100% renewable electricity. Carbon reductions and plastic-free packaging rolled into one? That’s the kind of progress we like to see.

Designed for Ricola, a CO2-reduced steel can / Source: Hoffmann

ABOUT HOFFMANN

Hoffmann Neopac is a privately owned company founded in 1890, headquartered in Thun, Switzerland.
Its Tin manufacturing arm, Hoffmann The Tin, produces a range of metal tin products including the child-safe CR-Tin; the Klipp-Klapp, which opens when the lid is pressed; and the RecyCan, made from 100% recycled Steel packaging.
Finishes for its tins include 3D coating varnish, embossing, debossing, offset printing and digital printing.
The RecyCan, which is food-grade compliant, uses 60% less energy compared to virgin production, and the production method ensures that 100% of steel is reused for packaging.
Green Steel is the company’s CO2-reduced hero product.
The conventional blast furnace production for steel involves using coal to remove oxygen from iron ore under high temperatures (reduction). CO2 is released during the process.
CO2-reduced steel is made by replacing iron ore with sponge iron which has already been reduced, meaning it does not need to be further reduced using coal.
Less coal means fewer emissions. While a tonne of ‘hot strip’ – the hot metal produced in steel production – made in a conventional manner generates 2.1 tonnes of CO2, steel produced using sponge iron produces 0.6 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of hot strip, a reduction of 1.5 tonnes.
To further the carbon savings, all Green Steel tins are made in Switzerland, near the company’s HQ, using renewable electricity.
The first brand to use Green Steel tins was Ricola, which launched the tins in March 2022 for its herbal drops.
Hoffmann’s Green Steel tin is made using steel sourced from Thyssenkrupp – the German company pioneered the reduced-CO2 production method with its Bluemint Steel. The material is, it claims, a step on the way towards producing climate-neutral steel by 2045 by using hydrogen instead of oxygen for reduction.
The company can produce up to 200 tins per minute, depending on the size and shape of the tin, and produces 350 million tins annually.
Minimum order quantities for offset printed tins start at 50,000 units, while digitally printed promotional items start from 120 to 2,000 units.
The company is ISO 9001, BRC/IOP Global Standard 6, and PSO ISO 12647-7 certified.
Between 2005 and 2012, in agreement with the Swiss government, the company claims it reduced its CO2 emissions by 27%. Between 2010 and 2015, it also halved its water consumption.