Offenbach start-up "PIZZycle" receives award from the German government for innovative pizza packaging
05.02.2025 – Pizza is one of the most popular fast food dishes in the world. However, the cardboard packaging, which at first glance is perceived by consumers as rather unproblematic, is deceptive. The cardboard boxes cannot be recycled due to fat and food residues and must be disposed of with the residual waste. Marlene Bruch and Luise Hornbach found a solution three years ago, when they were still students at the Offenbach University of Art and Design, and developed "PIZZycle". A play on words from pizza and "recycle" - the English term for reuse. It is a round plastic pizza packaging consisting of two identical halves. These are twisted together with a screw cap and can be reused up to 500 times.
In order to realize the next step from the design idea to the founding of the company, the founding team was strategically expanded with Filip Raketic and Malte Köllner. With their expertise in the fields of law and sustainability, the founding team's know-how was professionally supplemented with legal and sustainability-related aspects and was a decisive step towards targeting the production and marketing of the "PIZZycle" at major national and international customers.
Last year in Berlin, the "PIZZycle" team received the "Kultur- und Kreativpilot*innen" award from the German government for their innovative packaging solution.
Lord Mayor Dr. Felix Schwenke congratulated them on their success on behalf of the city council: "It was only through you that I understood that pizza boxes are not as environmentally friendly as I had hoped. Their business idea therefore convinced me and was also the motivation for choosing Marlene Bruch and Filip Raketic as young and innovative ambassadors for our Soul OF Hessen campaign and to keep in touch about how we can continue to support 'PIZZycle'. The concept of sustainable and environmentally friendly, reusable plastic pizza packaging is as progressive as it is ingenious. We all have a duty to use our planet's resources as responsibly as possible. With your product, you impressively demonstrate how innovation and sustainability can go hand in hand and thus assume social responsibility in equal measure."
Marlene Bruch also demonstrated her social responsibility through her contribution as an Offenbach founder at a joint event organized by Gründerstadt Offenbach in collaboration with the national Female Founders Alliance last September. In the fully booked event hall of the Ostpol, Marlene Bruch shared her founding story with around 120 predominantly female guests and publicly supported the aim of the event to promote the visibility and networking of female founders from the entire Rhine-Main region. Previously, the "PIZZycle" team had been supported by the Gründerstadt mentoring program, which provides suitable mentors to help founders develop their business ideas over a period of at least nine months.
Schwenke was proud that such a pioneering company had been created in Offenbach and added: "The innovative power of creating a product that sustainably solves an existing packaging problem has a radiance that demonstrably extends far beyond Offenbach's city limits. A great success story 'made in Offenbach'. Examples like this make it clear how important it is that we as a city continue to do everything we can to create an environment in which start-ups can develop innovative products and services."
The "Cultural and Creative Pilots" award is presented by the German government to companies in the cultural and creative industries and their interfaces with other sectors and is aimed at self-employed people, start-ups and projects.
Background
The first "PIZZycle" was created as a prototype from the 3D printer to test the design process and make the final product more tangible. Nevertheless, it was clear early on that manufacturing with a 3D printer was not suitable for mass production and that sustainable mass production had to be realized in other ways.
The nomination for the internationally recognized Green Concept Award 2021 and the entry as a finalist for the renowned German Sustainability Award, in addition to broad support from social media, gave the team around PIZZycle the decisive tailwind to successfully develop and market their product.
After intensive development work, the market-ready "PIZZycle" was finally created - an innovative, reusable alternative to conventional pizza boxes.
The materials from which the PIZZycle is made come exclusively from Europe and are manufactured in Germany from high-quality polypropylene plastic, are 100% recyclable and can be disposed of in the yellow garbage can.
Compared to disposable cardboard boxes, the innovative packaging does not use chemical coatings that are difficult for the environment to break down. At the same time, the "PIZZycle" is heat-resistant, scratch-proof, stackable and dishwasher-safe. Thanks to integrated air holes, excess steam escapes so that pizzas stay hot and crispy for longer compared to conventional disposable boxes. As a company, "PIZZycle" is therefore setting new standards in terms of sustainability and innovation in the catering industry.
