The environmental impact of packaging has been a passionately contested debate for many years. While the media criticises it as ‘an unnecessary waste’ that fills up landfills, the packaging industry promotes it as ‘a necessary step’ that protects food and consumables from damage, thereby avoiding waste.
Regardless of which side of the fence you choose to be on, an increasing number of reports conclude that consumers view packaging as the top environmental problem and would choose to buy a product that claims to be greener.
While the debate on what exactly constitutes green packaging rages on, governments and environmentalists as well as packaging associations across the world are setting up stringent laws and targets aimed at reducing the amount of packaging and promoting recyclable and recycled products.
The plastics recycling sector, for example, has recently launched The Plastics 2020 Challenge – an awareness campaign that will promote the development of lightweight plastics, develop new means of re-using plastics products, work with the Government and recyclers to double recycling rates by 2020, and support the roll-out of waste to energy technologies where recycling is not viable.
Among other green initiatives, this issue of Packaging Today analyses DEFRA’s Packaging Strategy published in June this year. The strategy acknowledges that packaging plays a broader role than just filling up the consumers’ rubbish bins and local authority landfills, and it also welcomes the reductions that have come about through the Courtauld Commitment.
Whether driven by legislation, social consciousness or the need to remain competitive, the packaging industry – from the raw materials suppliers, to the packaging manufacturer, the brand owner, and the retailers – is displaying its commitment to reducing its impact on the environment.
This issue of Packaging Today looks at some of these initiatives.
I am confident that these steps will eventually pay off and the industry will emerge greener. But as I bid a farewell to the packaging industry, I wish you all the very best not only for your green initiatives but in all your endeavours.
It’s been a privilege to be a part of the industry and I thank everybody I have known, met and worked with. I wish my successor Maureen Byrne and her new team the very best and I am sure they will continue to provide you with the best coverage of news, views and trends in the European packaging industry.
Sonali Advani
Group Editor
Sonali Advani
