In many Spanish homes, businesses, offices or waiting rooms around the world there is an element that amazes children, a fountain filled with water, with two taps, one blue and one red, and the stack of little cups next to it. In the teachers’ room, at the vet’s, at the dentist’s… the world of grown-ups is full of gadgets like this and children are dying to fill all the cups, to join the tribe of users who use the fountains, to participate in every drop. Now that the child has grown up and is no longer surprised to be in the presence of such an object, they try to turn something as ordinary as filling a cup of water in a dispenser into something unique: a synonym for sustainability where every drop counts.
In the world of the elderly, there are climate challenges associated with everyday gestures such as buying a coffee to go, asking for a container to take leftovers home from a restaurant or filling up a cup of water while waiting to be served. Take-away packaging, transversal to streets, offices, homes and waiting rooms, requires collaboration to make the trend as sustainable as possible.
Our Foodservice range, which extends from hot and cold beverage cups to ready-to-eat containers, is one of our strengths in this respect. Every drop counts in these compostable, 100% recyclable and neutral solutions. According to the Spanish Association of Manufacturers and Distributors (AECOC), some factors that will determine the future of Foodservice are personalisation, digitalisation and the balance between environmental protection and technological speed. In order to collaborate with our customers in the creation of the future predicted by AECOC, we opened Hinojosa Packaging Foodservice a year ago.
Hinojosa and Aquaservice: blue cups with a green heart
This water fountain that amazes children in the dentist’s waiting room or even in many Spanish homes, without them knowing it, is an example of the circular economy. This is what we have achieved with Aquaservice, a company we have the pleasure of working with, sharing with them our catalogue and knowledge of Foodservice packaging. Aquaservice is a leading company in the distribution of bottled water and dispensers. It currently has more than 60 branches and 5 production centres located at natural mineral water springs in Spain. It is the only brand to offer a large-scale, 100% native circular solution for bottled water in Spain and currently serves more than 700,000 home and business customers.
You’ve probably noticed the striking blue Aquaservice cups on the right-hand side of their water dispensers. This brand recall is thanks to the key role played by the design and personalisation of the cup. As AECOC and our team at Hinojosa’ predicted, one of the new trends in Foodservice is personalised packaging, so that it perfectly conveys a brand’s values. High-quality printing makes Aquaservice cups not only sustainable, but also a visual delight.
Positive impact on the environment: a shared value
In Hinojosa we share a philosophy with Aquaservice: the circular economy as a foundation of our activities. The company has been committed to a pioneering model since 1997 and is the first bottled water company to earn the Circular Economy Strategy certificate from AENOR. Thanks to this system, its bottles can hold up to 1,000 litres of water during their lifetime, saving 32 kilos of single-use plastics. As with our packaging, at the end of their useful life, these bottles are recycled to recover the raw material and generate new products. This makes its business a hub of innovation focused on reducing waste and protecting the planet.
But their contribution to reducing single-use plastics does not end with bottles. The cups we make for Aquaservice also have a lot to contribute in this respect.
These solutions are made from 100% recyclable paper and are certified as compostable.
And speaking of certifications, in just one year, the Foodservice plant also stands out for having achieved an exciting milestone: PEFC certification. Our Foodservice product range cares for and protects our main raw material: paper. PEFC is an internationally recognised certification system that ensures the sustainability of forests.
Working to produce environmentally friendly packaging alongside customers like Aquaservice reassures us that collaboration enhances our impact, and that it is possible to build a better world through packaging. Our packaging contains and embodies the shared purpose of a better world.
