As of: February 13, 2024, 9:17 a.m
By: Amy Walker
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Mirco Wolf Wiegert is the founder and managing director of Fritz-Kola in Hamburg.
In the interview he talks about the traffic light plastic tax and what is really slowing down the economy.
Mirco Wolf Wiegert, today we actually wanted to talk about the plastic tax and the mood of crisis in the economy. But before we get started, a completely different thing: The economy is slowly waking up and realizing that right-wing extremism is becoming a problem in Germany. Fritz-Kola as a company has had a clear position in this regard for a long time. Given the new situation, are you planning a new approach, a new campaign?
We think about it.
In fact, the situation is really very complicated right now.
If up to 30 percent in a region want to vote for the extreme right, I ask myself how we can deal with that.
So how do you find a twist to bring people back into the democratic community?
I haven't found an answer yet.
We are very active at the demonstrations, many people who work here are involved and want to draw attention to it.
And yes, it's slowly dawning on the economy: This won't be good, it'll be a complete disaster.
We won't be able to solve it alone, but we will at least do our part to solve it.
Speaking of polarizing: The traffic light coalition currently seems to be polarizing everywhere. A plastic tax is to be introduced next year. As a company that has always relied on reusable glass, does this give you a feeling of validation?
To be honest, I've always wondered why drinks are bottled in plastic bottles at all.
As Boy Scouts, my co-founder and I always found packaging waste everywhere: cans, plastic bottles, cigarette packs, cigarette butts.
This influenced us so much that when we founded Fritz-Kola, it was clear to us that we had to take this into account.
By the way, reusable glass is the natural beverage packaging.
If you go back historically, there were clay jars and then glass for decades.
At some point, parts of the beverage industry switched to disposable packaging, which means we just have to learn how to return to local production and how to use resources in a way that conserves resources.
Better than recycling is reusable glass, even better than that is avoiding it.
The overconsumption of drinks must also decrease.
As a drinks seller, do you advocate that people consume fewer drinks?
Yes, well, that is a part of the problem that is often neglected.
With the decline in reusable glass and the increase in single-use plastic bottles, beverage portions have become increasingly larger.
And everyone knows that: if you open the chips, you eat them empty, no matter how big the package is.
And it's the same with lemonade; when I open the bottle, it ends up being empty.
With such a small reusable bottle, I also consume less; I don't open up two or three more.
So the plastic bottles lead to two problems: the recycling problem and this problem of overconsumption.
That's why we at fritz-kola advocate small reusable glass bottles in order to address both problems.
Mirco Wolf Wiegert is the co-founder of the lemonade manufacturer Fritz-Kola © fritz-kola
But isn't it good for you if people consume a lot? From a business perspective.
I do not think so.
I think, as an entrepreneur and owner, I simply have an obligation to work sustainably.
It's part of not producing packaging waste and it's also part of me thinking about consumption itself.
If people drink too much of my products and get problems as a result, then that's not what I want.
So I'm making money anyway, I don't have to make money by making others suffer.
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And a plastic tax can really address these problems?
It's a first step.
We just have to take even more aggressive action against single-use packaging, including through bans.
And the plastic tax can be a wonderful first step towards making packaging more expensive and thereby making reusable glass even more economical.
We are currently living in times of very expensive energy - and glass production is very energy-intensive. How do you feel this?
The bottles have become more expensive.
At times we even had costs tripling.
We have now almost doubled compared to the time before the Ukraine crisis.
So the situation has eased somewhat.
Nevertheless, high energy costs are of course a problem because the glassworks still run on gas.
Do you have to pass on the increased prices to customers?
Yes, we have increased the prices significantly.
We had two price increases, which were very painful for us and for our customers.
There is currently a lot of public discussion about how companies can be relieved and the economy can get back on track. What would help you the most? What do you need from politics?
The mood here isn't that bad because things are going well for us.
Nevertheless, there are things that I would like to see happen: On the one hand, the framework must be created for cheap energy.
Cheap energy keeps the economy running.
One of our partners has been trying to build a wind turbine for five years and has not been able to get it approved.
Financing a wind turbine is still relatively easy, but actually getting it approved and built is a huge issue.
The second is that companies struggling with this multiple crisis need relief elsewhere.
And I'm not talking about subsidies, we don't want money.
What we really need is bureaucratic relief.
I've been busy for two years now trying to figure out how we should deal with the ban on advertising sweets - which will also affect us.
Or if employees travel to other EU countries for us, then this has to go through a whole process with the health insurance company.
Completely bizarre processes, bizarre procedures.
It is therefore urgently necessary that politics, but also the public sector in general, finally makes progress and significantly reduces this bureaucracy.
The work that I have now described requires two very expensive full-time employees.
These are costs that are actually unnecessary.
Fritz-kola brand lemonades are sold in supermarkets.
© Imago
I assume digitalization...
...which doesn't exist...
... does it play a significant role?
Like everywhere, complete madness.
And things just don't happen, it's not possible for a medium-sized company to have so many resources in terms of staff and money to meet all the requirements.
Excluded.
Well, you could now say that the plastic tax that you are supporting is exactly that: a new requirement that needs to be monitored.
Yes.
I also don't know which way is best: plastic tax or simply consistently increasing the reusable quota.
There isn't that much reusable plastic, so that would also be a way.
One of these routes can be chosen to reduce single-use packaging.
And we absolutely have to do that.
The issue of packaging waste is just one of many issues when it comes to transforming the economy. How else is things going at Fritz-Kola on the path to climate neutrality?
We are in the middle of the process right now.
We measure our CO₂ footprint with an external company that has developed an economic climate impact model (XDC).
And since we don't have our own bottling plant, our Scope 1 emissions are relatively undramatic
[see info box, note d.
Ed.]
.
We have converted our entire fleet to e-mobility and are now almost finished.
For us, the greatest leverage lies in Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions.
Our partner companies still use a lot of gas and oil and do not yet have the opportunity to switch to hydrogen.
So that still takes time.
But what we have already done is we have put two new plants online.
As a result, we have significantly reduced water and energy consumption through new machines alone.
What are Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions?
The scope classification is used to categorize the different forms of greenhouse gas emissions.
This is intended to reflect not only the emissions for which the company is directly responsible, but also the entire supply and value chain.
Scope 1:
Direct emissions emitted by the company itself.
This includes, for example, vehicle fleets or the energy used at the company location.
Scope 2:
Indirect emissions from purchased energy, for example the energy used to supply electricity or heat.
(Exception: If the company itself is an energy producer, then this counts as Scope 1)
Scope 3:
Indirect emissions that can be traced back to partner companies or are emitted outside the company.
The entire value chain is taken into account.
One last question: Would you still advise starting a business today?
Absolutely, always.
Times are always challenging.
When I set up my own business in 2003, Germany was the sick man of Europe.
And we became self-employed during that time because there were new opportunities.
And now we have new, challenging times and there are new opportunities that you have to find, look for and use.
That is the job of entrepreneurs.
The times are what they are.
You have to fight your way through.