Today, packaging must do more than just provide protection, safety, and reliable processing. Its recyclability and its contribution to resource-efficient value creation are also becoming increasingly important for industrial companies. Muhr & Söhne develops and manufactures packaging solutions made of steel and tinplate for demanding products such as paints, coatings, adhesives, sealants, and construction chemicals.
Particularly in these sectors, the question often arises: Can a tinplate container still be recycled if it previously contained chemical products?
The short answer: Yes. The only requirement is that the container is properly emptied — drip-free, trickle-free, or scraped clean in accordance with VCI guidelines, depending on the filling material—and returned via established take-back systems such as KBS.
Tinplate can be processed again and again into new high-quality steel. Its magnetic properties enable reliable mechanical sorting during the recycling process. With recycling rates exceeding 90 percent in Germany, the material is a prime example of true circularity: Used packaging is transformed into new automotive parts, construction products, or—once again—containers for the chemical industry.
What happens to residual deposits? A properly emptied container does not require elaborate washing prior to recycling. Minor, technically unavoidable deposits burn away without leaving any residue at the high temperatures of the metallurgical melting process, while the pure steel is fully preserved — as often as needed and without any loss of quality.
Muhr & Söhne combines the fundamental recycling advantages of steel and tinplate with concrete measures throughout its own value chain. These include in-house solar power generation, the procurement of green electricity, and the ability to offer selected packaging solutions made from CO₂-reduced packaging steel (bluemint® recycled). This allows customers to add an additional component to their packaging strategy: In addition to high technical performance and established recycling channels, the choice of raw material alone can help influence a product’s carbon footprint.
Muhr & Söhne supports customers not only as a manufacturer of containers but also as a partner in selecting a suitable packaging solution that combines and fully meets the requirements for product protection, process reliability, processability, and sustainability.
For Muhr & Söhne, sustainable packaging development therefore does not end with the delivery of a container.
The key is to take the entire life cycle into account: from resource-efficient material use and safe handling all the way to high-grade material recycling. In this way, high-performance industrial packaging becomes a valuable raw material for the next generation of premium steel products.
