EnergyVital can be plastic-free.

Strange headline. From 2019 to 2026, it read “EnergyVital is plastic-free”. However, due to developments in recent years, we now face a significant problem:

• DHL’s delivery charges have become increasingly expensive, with the 1 kg weight limit and the thickness (more or less than 8 cm) of parcels being particularly significant factors in determining the DHL tariff
• Packaging materials have become vastly more expensive, particularly since 2022
• The red tape imposed by politics and bureaucracy has increased enormously, as have the associated costs. And, above all, without any discernible benefit – see our article ‘No Free Shipping for Online Shops – Or: The EU is Dismantling Itself!’
  
• Manufacturers are increasingly switching from plastic to glass. Whilst this is welcome in itself, it also results in much heavier parcels and a significant increase in the effort required for padding
• The quality of DHL’s delivery service is steadily declining; incidents of broken glass have risen dramatically over the last six months. At the same time, DHL virtually never offers compensation; they always come up with an excuse such as ‘inadequate packaging’. That’s why we’ve increased the padding – and consequently the size of our parcels – by around 50% since January 2026!

Costs have therefore risen enormously in recent years, first from 2022 (a sudden rise in the cost of energy and packaging materials due to the war in Ukraine) and then again since 2025 due to the increasing use of glass packaging.
However, our very affordable delivery charges of around 4 euros – and free delivery on orders of 30–40 euros or more – have remained the same for the past 10 years!

Until now, we’ve just about managed to absorb these costs without raising our delivery charges, but that’s no longer possible. However, the option of significantly increasing delivery charges is also out of the question, as we would otherwise plummet in the rankings on price comparison sites, and many customers look only at the price and not at the circumstances, so this would result in a massive drop in turnover.

So the most obvious solution would be to cut costs! We don’t want to impose a switch from DHL to GLS or Hermes on our customers. So we need to make the parcels significantly smaller and lighter again, and that’s not possible with glass bottles in plain cardboard packaging.

Unfortunately, bubble wrap is unbeatable when it comes to protecting the glass bottles and saving on postage costs through smaller parcels. Not to mention the lower exhaust emissions during transport, which puts the argument about the environmental benefits of cardboard over plastic into perspective somewhat.

The fairest approach would be to let customers decide for themselves what environmental protection is worth to them. We will therefore set up an option in the shop where customers can choose whether they would like their parcel to be completely plastic-free for a surcharge of 1 euro. This euro does not cover our additional costs; a parcel that is completely plastic-free costs us approximately 1.20–1.50 euros more per parcel due to higher postage charges and because padding cardboard is significantly more expensive than padding film (30 cents vs. 10 cents), costs us approx. 1.20–1.50 euros more per parcel; in other words, we are actually subsidising 20–50 cents of the cost ourselves in this case!

But we’re already constantly subsidising the postage anyway! So a little more contribution from customers would only be fair.

Our actual postage costs

Our most common parcel option to date has been DHL’s small parcel. According to our calculations (box, padding, postage, etc.), this costs 3.95 euros. The plastic-free version costs 4.15 euros.

However, due to the switch from plastic to glass across all our brands, we are able to use this option less and less frequently. This is primarily due to the fact that bubble-wrap paper is significantly heavier and thicker, whilst providing poorer cushioning than air bubble wrap.
Consequently, since January 2026, the small parcel size has been increasingly insufficient and a standard, more expensive parcel is required more often.
A parcel weighing up to 1 kg costs us 5.15 euros; with more expensive plastic-free cushioning material, the cost rises to 5.35 euros.
As glass is much heavier in itself, we are increasingly having to use a 1–3 kg parcel, which costs us €5.35. The small surcharge compared to a parcel under 1 kg is explained by the fact that, with such a large parcel, we no longer need to pay attention to every gram and can use free cardboard scraps for padding – made from the material that our suppliers send us anyway.

This means that the significant increase in costs since 2025 is primarily due to two factors: firstly, the increase in the weight of the parcels due to heavy cardboard padding and glass, and secondly, the fact that we therefore increasingly have to choose a parcel size one size larger than before.

We therefore always pay between 3.95 and 5.35 euros in postage costs for each parcel – a figure that is trending upwards – but we only charge our customers 3.90 euros and cover the costs in full for orders worth 48 euros or more!

We don’t want to completely abandon our good intentions regarding going plastic-free, but it’s not possible without the involvement of our customers either. From now on, everyone therefore has the choice as to whether they’d like to contribute to going plastic-free for a surcharge of 1 euro or not!

A nuanced scientific assessment

This question cannot be answered quite so simplistically, along the lines of ‘paper good, plastic bad’
There are other factors at play which can tip the balance in favour of plastic:

• Water and energy consumption during production: Here, bubble wrap clearly has the edge!
• Purity of the materials: It’s important that the cardboard is pure; coated cardboard is classified as hazardous waste. The same applies to film: pure film like this one is easily recyclable via the yellow bag, whereas a composite of film with other materials tends not to be.
• A heavy, large cardboard box results in significantly higher fuel consumption in a DHL lorry than a small, lightweight one.

Of course, the plastics lobby will always find reasons why plastic is better, as here: Advantages of polyethylene bags over paper bags: An ecological and economic analysis

But the eco and paper lobbies aren’t “green angels” either; they’re quite happy to interpret the truth in a way that suits their own agenda: Comparison of cardboard and plastic: Sustainability in packaging

The truth probably lies somewhere in between. There are also sources of information that may be somewhat more neutral, as they do not stand to gain financially from either cardboard or plastic, as might be the case here: Packaging made from cardboard vs. plastic packaging: Which is better?

Our packaging materials

Generally speaking, we naturally always try to dispatch our goods as environmentally responsibly as possible, but we must not lose sight of our vital financial interests as a company either. An exemplary and “no-holds-barred” eco-friendly company is of no use to anyone if it goes bankrupt...

Here are our packaging materials:

• This is the main shipping box we use. It isn’t FSC-certified, but that doesn’t really matter, as unfortunately that’s nothing more than a massive greenwashing scam – see here: ARD Mediathek The exploitation of rainforests.
  We still have stock until around mid-2026; once this has run out, we will go back to using FSC-certified boxes for parcels and goods-by-post, but as often as possible we’ll also be using the far superior grass-based cardboard (in terms of environmental protection; technically, ‘normal’ cardboard is better, which is why we’ll use that when necessary).
• Instead of Tesa packing tape, we’ll then use this: paper packing tape. This means our customers can finally put the entire parcel into the recycling bin without any pre-treatment.
• If something a bit stronger is required and paper tape isn’t sufficient, we use PLA adhesive tape MONTA biopack, which consists mainly of maize starch and is the first certified eco-friendly adhesive tape ‘Made in Germany’ .
• Glass containers must be well padded; for this, we use the AirPro Green postal bag or bubble-wrap padding.
• Unfortunately, both are expensive and not particularly suitable for providing proper protection. In future, we will therefore supplement these with bubble wrap. This wrap is not only highly recyclable, as it is pure and free from any additional adhesives, such as paper. You can also simply reuse it at home instead of throwing it away. For example, it’s ideal for safely packing porcelain, such as before a move or for 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 is not used if the ‘plastic-free’ shipping option is selected .
• With our packaging chips, you’ll be able to enrich your compost heap in future: packaging chips
• And even customers from Switzerland who need separate envelopes for customs documents will receive their goods plastic-free in future: green paper delivery note envelopes.

We hope our customers will understand this. We think , however, that this won’t be a problem, especially as it’s now up to each individual to ensure the desired and desirable plastic-free option by adding the “Plastic-free” option for 1 euro!

Unfortunately, however, we cannot offer this choice to our overseas customers. The difference in cost for parcels sent abroad between parcels that are 1 cm thicker or thinner, or 10 g heavier or lighter, can easily amount to €8. It is hardly likely that many customers would be prepared to pay such a surcharge. For these parcels, we therefore decide for ourselves how to pack them. Naturally, we always prioritise plastic-free packaging whenever possible!