Delivering Adhesives in Road Tankers

Zero-waste stores – shops where consumers can buy food and other items in bulk without packaging – are cropping up all over the world. But did you know that many of our adhesive product families for tapes & labels are also delivered “unpacked”? By delivering adhesives in road tankers to our customers, we are able to make significant contributions to sustainability across the entire value chain. In order to measure this in quantifiable terms, we use the Henkel Sustainability#Master^®, which is key analysis tool for visualizing improvements and optimizing our contribution to the “value” and “footprint” dimensions. Using a matrix representation, we can evaluate changes in both of these dimensions and along the value chain.

Bulk delivery of adhesives in road tankers and the waste hierarchy

The waste hierarchy is all about minimizing both resource input and waste. But it doesn’t just apply to consumer packaging. Road tankers are not considered to be packaging at all and therefore can be put at the very top of the pyramid – under prevent. By delivering liquid adhesives this way, it minimizes resource input and waste by eliminating the need for packaging. Tank containers are reusable, resistant to product wastage, can be repaired and refurbished and – when the time comes – are suitable for recycling.

Enabling sustainability at the customer

Delivering adhesives in road tankers to our customers means a host of a host of sustainability advantages. Liquid adhesives supplied in tankers means fewer deliveries are needed – reducing the overall CO2 footprint of our customers’ products. Just-in-time delivery eliminates the need for storage and less manual handling – and with no drums to dispose of at the end of use, waste is avoided. The bulk supply of liquid hotmelt adhesives also means lower melt costs for our customers, which translates into lower energy use. Overall, this means less manual handling by workers, bringing a significant contribution to health & safety.

REthinking packaging along the value chain

The sustainability of an end-product doesn’t just start with what a consumer does with the package at the end of life. It starts at the very beginning, with how the product is made. Henkel is working to enable sustainability along the entire packaging value chain – no one company can go it alone. Get in touch to learn more about which of our products families are available for bulk delivery and rethink packaging with us.