Schrobenhausen cardboard made from paludicultures

From now on, plant trays made from paludiculture cardboard with the slogan ‘GEMEINSAM MOOR ERREICHEN’ are available in OBI stores. This cardboard was produced on our cardboard machine in Schrobenhausen in a trial production run with a proportion of around 10 % raw grass fibres. The fibres used come from the ProMofa project and thus from rewetted areas of the Danube moss just outside Schrobenhausen.

LEIPA tested the development of a product innovation based on the combination of annual plants and waste paper in order to be able to offer customers new climate-friendly solutions.

Various economic utilisation options are being investigated for the biomass harvested from rewetted moorland. One promising option is the use of fibres in paper and cardboard production. For this purpose, the reed canary grass, which predominates on certain rewetted areas of the Danube moss, was broken down by the company Fibers365 using a thermal printing process and then made available to LEIPA.

Robert Schiefner, Plant Manager Schrobenhausen: "The fibres could be processed without any problems. Around 65 tonnes of saleable cartonboard were produced in five hours. All cardboard-specific parameters were achieved. I would like to thank the KM production team for the very successful preparation and realisation of the trial. This successful trial has demonstrated the technical feasibility of using reed canary grass fibres in cartonboard."

The cardboard produced was mainly supplied to the customer Leopold Verpackungen, Ludwigsburg. There, it was used to make the crates for OBI, which are marketed specifically with reference to the ProMofa project.

Matthias Roth, Head of Sales Solid Board LEIPA, is convinced: "Cardboard with a proportion of paludic fibres will not only expand our product portfolio, but take it to a whole new level. The combination of recycled paper and peat fibre is 200% sustainable."

OBI and LEIPA are members of the ‘Alliance of Pioneers’ of the toMOORow initiative, which aims to develop sustainable value chains for paludiculture biomass. The focus here is on the rewetting of peatlands in order to permanently reduce CO2 emissions caused by the biodegradation of peat biomass. Approximately 7.5 % of the CO2 emissions emitted in Germany originate from drained peatlands. By comparison, cars and commercial vehicles together account for around 11% of greenhouse gas emissions. The Donaumoos moor on the outskirts of our Schrobenhausen site is one of the largest areas of fenland in southern Germany.

According to the company, OBI sells around 46 million plants every year, many of which are transported home in cardboard boxes.