BASF to launch new sustainable packaging for crop protection products

Just in time for the start of the 2010 spring season, BASF Crop Protection will be launching its new, eco-friendly packaging for crop protection products in Europe. Developed with farmers to meet their needs, this novel packaging system offers easy handling, time savings as well as improved safety, whilst reducing agriculture’s carbon footprint.

BASF consulted farmers when developing the eco packaging. The result is a lightweight, easy-to-handle plastic bottle with a central opening at the top, a new screw cap without a foil seal and a special design that reduces spillage and glugging. The new bottles and labels consist of mono-material, which is easier to recycle than a material mix. With the new system, farmers’ risk of coming into contact with a product is minimized. At the same time, farmers can save up to 25 percent of their time from the improved speed of opening, pouring and rinsing the bottle. At critical parts of the season, downtime is reduced.

The new packaging also requires 25 percent less plastic without compromising high standard technical performance. Once it has been fully launched in Europe in 2014, approx. 2,000 metric tons less greenhouse gases will be emitted a year. This is roughly equivalent to the amount of CO2 that 80,000 trees can convert into oxygen in the same time.

"Sustainable farming demands an integrated approach. This new packaging system is just one example of how we help farmers work more profitably and safely, while reducing the environmental impact of agriculture,” said Markus Heldt, head of BASF Crop Protection. “A series of on-farm tests allowed us to incorporate the experience and knowledge of growers directly into the development process,” he added.

The new packaging system is the latest in a long tradition of innovative, environmentally friendly concepts for packaging and other agricultural applications. Since as far back as 1994, BASF has been offering large-scale businesses the environmentally friendly reusable container Ecomatic and Calixin MTC system in Germany and Latin America. BASF’s biodegradable plastic Ecoflex® plays a crucial role in the cultivation of vegetables, acting as an environmentally friendly mulch film. From the spring of 2010, the Eco packaging will provide another innovative packaging system in Europe. Other countries will follow. By combining new chemistry, new products, new formulation technologies and new packaging concepts, BASF Crop Protection offers unique, innovative solutions that help customers to be more successful.