EnergyVital can be plastic-free.

Strange headline. From 2019 to 2026 it said "EnergyVital is plastic-free". However, due to developments in recent years we have a significant problem:

• Shipping costs with DHL have become increasingly expensive, with the weight threshold of 1 kg and the thickness (more or less than 8 cm) of parcels being particularly important for categorisation in the DHL tariff
• Packaging materials have become enormously more expensive, especially since 2022
• The constraints imposed by politics and bureaucracy have increased enormously, as have the costs associated with them. And above all with no apparent benefit, see our article Nix Versandfreiheit für Onlineshops - Oder: Die EU zerlegt sich selbst!
  
• Manufacturers are increasingly switching from plastic to glass. That's in itself pleasing, but it also results in significantly heavier parcels and a considerably increased effort for padding
• DHL's transport quality is steadily declining; incidents of glass breakage have increased enormously in the last 6 months. At the same time there is practically never any compensation from DHL — they always come up with an excuse like "insufficient packaging". For this reason we have increased the padding and therefore the size of our parcels by about 50% since 01.2026!

So costs have risen enormously in recent years, first from 2022 (sudden increases in energy and packing materials due to the war in Ukraine) and again since 2025 due to the growing prevalence of glass packaging.
Our very low shipping prices of around €4 and free shipping from €30–40, however, have remained unchanged for 10 years!

Until now we were barely able to absorb this without raising the shipping costs, but we can no longer do so. However, raising shipping costs significantly is not an option either, because we would otherwise slide down drastically in the price comparison search engines and many customers look only at the price and not the circumstances — that would mean a huge drop in turnover.

So the obvious solution would be to save costs! We don't want to subject our customers to switching from DHL to GLS or Hermes. Therefore we have to make the parcels significantly smaller and lighter again, and that isn't possible with glass bottles in pure cardboard packaging.

Unfortunately, bubble wrap is unbeatable when it comes to protecting glass and saving on shipping costs by enabling smaller parcels. Not to mention the lower exhaust emissions during transport, which somewhat relativises the argument about the environmental advantages of cardboard over plastic.

The fairest approach would be to let customers decide for themselves how much environmental protection is worth to them. We will therefore set up an option in the shop where customers can choose whether they want the parcel completely plastic-free for an extra €1. This euro does not cover our additional costs — a completely plastic-free parcel costs us about €1.20–€1.50 more per parcel due to higher postage and because padding cardboard is considerably more expensive than bubble wrap (30 cents vs. 10 cents), which means we will even subsidise 20–50 cents ourselves in that case!

But we are already constantly subsidising shipping anyway! A bit more customer contribution would be only fair.

Our actual shipping costs

Our most common parcel to date was DHL's small parcel. According to our calculations (box, padding, postage...) this costs €3.95. In the plastic-free variant it costs €4.15.

However, because of the switch from plastic to glass across all our brands, we can use this less and less. This is mainly due to the fact that bubble-padded paper is significantly heavier and thicker while providing worse padding than bubble wrap.
Therefore, since 01.2026 the small parcel is increasingly insufficient and a standard, more expensive parcel is needed more often.
A parcel up to 1 kg costs us €5.15, with more expensive plastic-free padding material €5.35.
Because glass itself is much heavier, it increasingly requires a 1–3 kg parcel, which costs us €5.35. The small surcharge compared with the parcel under 1 kg is explained by the fact that with such a large parcel we no longer have to watch every gram and we pad with free cardboard offcuts from material our suppliers send us anyway.

This means the main cost increase since 2025 is mainly due to two factors: first the increase in parcel weight because of heavy cardboard padding and glass and second the fact that we therefore have to choose a higher parcel size more often than before.

So we always pay postage of €3.95–€5.35 per parcel, for every parcel, with a tendency upwards, but we only charge our customers €3.90 and cover the costs entirely from an order value of €48!

We do not want to completely abandon our good intentions regarding plastic-free practices, but it's not possible without involving customers. From now on, therefore, everyone has the choice whether they want to contribute to plastic-free shipping with a €1 surcharge or not!

A nuanced scientific assessment

This question cannot be answered so primitively, i.e. "paper good, plastic bad"
Other factors come into play which can tip the balance in favour of plastic:

• Water and energy consumption in production: here bubble wrap clearly has the edge!
• Purity of materials: it's important that the cardboard is uncoated; coated cardboard is hazardous waste. The same applies to film: pure film like this here is readily recyclable via the yellow sack, whereas a composite of film with other materials generally isn't.
• A heavy, large box causes significantly higher fuel consumption in the DHL lorry than a smaller, lighter one.

Of course the plastics lobby will always find reasons why plastic is better, such as here: Vorteile von Polyethylen-Säcken gegenüber Papiersäcken: Eine ökologische und wirtschaftliche Analyse

But the eco- or paper lobby are no "green angels" either; they like to spin the truth more in their favour: Comparison of cardboard and plastic: Sustainability in packaging

The truth is probably somewhere in between. There are also information sources that may be somewhat more neutral because neither cardboard nor plastic is being unfairly profited from there, such as perhaps here: Packaging made of cardboard vs plastic packaging: what is better?

Our packaging materials

In general we of course always try to ship as environmentally consciously as possible, but we must not lose sight of our company's vital financial interests. A model eco-company that is "environmental at any cost" is of no use to anyone if it becomes insolvent...

Here are our packaging materials:

• As shipping carton we primarily use this. It is not FSC-certified, which doesn't matter much since that is unfortunately nothing but a major greenwashing scam, see here: ARD Mediathek Die Ausbeutung der Urwälder.
  We have stock until around mid-2026; when this is used up we will again use FSC boxes for parcels and Warenpost, but as often as possible also use the considerably better grass cardboard (with regard to environmental protection; technically the "normal" cardboard is better, which is why it will be used when necessary).
• Instead of Tesa packing tape we will then use this: paper packing tape. Then our customers can finally put the entire parcel into the paper recycling without prior treatment.
• If something stronger is required and paper tape isn't sufficient, we use PLA tape MONTA biopack, which is mostly made from maize starch and is the first certified ecological tape Made in Germany.
• Glass containers must be well padded; for this we use AirPro Green shipping bags or bubble-padded paper.
• Unfortunately both are expensive and rather mediocre for real protection. In future we will therefore supplement them with bubble wrap. This film is not only easily recyclable because it is pure and without additional adhesives such as paper. You can also simply reuse it at home instead of throwing it away — e.g. ideal for safely packing porcelain for moves or storage.
  This bubble wrap is actually the only change to our previous "plastic-free" status; otherwise everything remains as environmentally friendly as before! And of course it will not be used when the shipping option Plastic-free is selected.
• With our packing chips you can in future delight your compost heap: packing chips
• And even customers from Switzerland who need separate pouches for customs documents will in future receive their goods plastic-free: green paper delivery-note pouches.

We hope our customers will understand. We don't think it will be a problem, especially since everyone now has it in their own hands to ensure the desired and desirable plastic-free option by adding "Plastic-free" for €1!

Unfortunately we cannot offer this choice to our foreign customers. The difference for parcels abroad between parcels that are 1 cm thicker or thinner or 10 g heavier or lighter can quickly be €8. It is hard to assume that many customers would be willing to pay such a surcharge. For these parcels we therefore decide ourselves how to pack them. Naturally, plastic-free always takes precedence with us when it is possible!