Ardagh is the world’s first packaging company to have Cradle to Cradle® certified products

Ardagh Group is celebrating the successful outcome of one of the world's most demanding environmental assessments for 2 of its metal products.

This makes it the first packaging company to gain the coveted Cradle to Cradle® certification for both a baby food and a paint can. Its achievement was welcomed by business and packaging leaders as confirmation of the role and value of consumer packaging around the world.

The Cradle to Cradle® certification was managed through the leading environmental assessment agency EPEA, starting with a period of nine months of collecting data of all the components of the two cans. This data was independently analysed at the deepest chemical level (up to 100ppm) and covers a comprehensive assessment of the material input, material reutilization, energy consumption, water impacts and social responsibility.

Woep Möller (pictured right), Group Commercial Director for Ardagh Group commented: "We chose the baby food and paint cans as two of the most complex structures in our portfolio. We are now proud to have formal acknowledgement  that metal packaging is future proof and sustainable packaging.”

He added: “It all starts with choosing the right materials. Because iron (which is the main constituent of a steel can) is a chemical element, it can be recycled without any loss of quality. This makes it an ideal packaging material."

Congratulating Ardagh, Professor Michael Braungart (pictured left), eminent environmental scientist and senior EPEA consultant, said: "Sustainability can be a very general term that is much abused by companies. By submitting themselves to this detailed process Ardagh have proved themselves worthy of becoming not just packaging but industrial environmental champions."