Seen to be green

The environment might have been knocked from the top of the news agenda by recent health and financial scares, but it remains, arguably, the issue that in the longer term will have the greatest impact on how packaging suppliers conduct their businesses.

That’s because while the media has focused on first the global economic crisis and latterly swine flu, the environment continues to shape everything from legislation to consumer buying habits, all of which impacts a packaging industry that is responding to these forces by demonstrating its ability to be adaptable.

One organisation developing several green packaging projects is the Government-funded WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme). Working with the likes of ASDA, Crown Paints, STFI-Packforsk and CEVA Logistics, it is exploring how re-usable and refillable systems can help the retail chain reduce packaging, which it says could “spark a ‘reusables revolution’”.

Examples include the development of self-dispensing technology, which will enable consumers to purchase concentrated fabric conditioner in re-usable pouches that can be refilled up to 10 times on automated machines.

According to WRAP, “the move to refillable and reusable systems could enable packagers to provide value added products and services to their customers by helping them to achieve the substantial carbon reductions targets that the UK has set for 2020 and beyond”.

However, the immediate goal of the five-month trial is to assess consumer reaction, with WRAP stating that “propensity to use, refill frequency, loyalty, motivations will all be researched and findings will be made available in 2010”.

It continues: “Comparing the benefits and disadvantages of both single use and re-usable packaging formats is a fundamental part of the study, with the aim of helping companies to make informed choices.”

Industry associations, too, are actively involved with reducing the impact of packaging on the environment. One way in which they can do this is to lobby governments on behalf of their members to change or introduce legislation, a course of action successfully taken by Homo Ecos, which represents the Latvian bioplastics industry.

It has initiated a cabinet ordinance for a legal definition for biodegradable plastics, which it believes will benefit the industry by raising standards. A tax on natural resources in Latvia grants packaging made of biodegradable plastics a significantly reduced tariff compared with conventional plastics. The ordinance makes certification and labelling mandatory for bioplastics products if they want to profit from the lower tariff.

“At the moment we are strongly committed to the translation of the European standards for compostable bioplastics EN 13432 and 14995 into Latvian,” says Andrejs Viks, spokesperson of Homo Ecos.

Another organisation making environmental strides is the European Aluminium Association. It has long promoted beverage can recycling but is now also focusing attention and investment on the collection of foil trays for ready-made meals.

Although social consciousness has played a part in its decision to expand its sources of recycled product, the association says that for its members it also makes sound business sense. That’s because using recycled material uses 95 per cent of the energy of primary metal, thus lowering energy consumption bills.

Meanwhile, the Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) Packaging Group has recently been telling its members about what it considers is a “unique” recycling project in Guernsey.

Faced with the problem of what to do with the island’s EPS once it had decided landfill wasn’t an option, the local authority eventually decided to invest in a machine that compacts the material by 90 per cent and sell it to Robust, a Welsh recycling company. In a novel twist, Robust turns the EPS into substitute hardwood briquettes, which Guernsey buys back and is using for outdoor furniture such as park benches.

While, unlike in the aluminium sector, there is no immediate financial case for members of the EPS Packaging Group to promote recycling, they do so because they want to demonstrate their eco-friendliness to their customers – who it seems will increasingly have the power to make buying decisions based on a product’s carbon footprint.

The Carbon Reduction Label has been developed by the Carbon Trust to help consumers understand the carbon footprints of the products and services they use. Launched in 2007, it measures carbon emissions at every step of the supply chain, and now appears on more than 2,500 UK consumer products.

The growth in the use of the Carbon Reduction Label demonstrates that, despite being pushed down the news agenda by other events, the environment continues to have an enormous impact on the packaging industry.