Spend green, earn green

18 July 2016



Spend green, earn green


Spend green, earn green

The packaging industry has undergone huge changes to meet the sustainability challenges posed by legislators and consumers. Today, sustainability and corporate social responsibility go hand-in-hand to bring about a packaging landscape that protects the environment. Dave Howell investigates.

The packaging industry is often still seen at odds with the demand for sustainability that’s driving many of its key markets, but some common ground is beginning to emerge. Packaging manufacturers are seeking out more environmentally friendly materials and consumers’ recycling levels are on the rise. Meanwhile, partnerships are blossoming across the packaging value chain in order for companies to meet recycling targets.

Consumers are increasingly using the level of sustainable materials in a product’s packaging as a differentiator in their purchasing decisions, and global recycling levels are constantly rising. Alongside media campaigns and environmental activism, brands themselves have been instrumental in promoting this behaviour among their customers.

The Co-operative has been working on the sustainability qualifications of its glass-packaged products for years, including lightweighting its whisky, ale and wine bottles.

“We work with suppliers to use recycled content in packaging where possible and extend the shelf lives of products,” says Iain Ferguson, environment manager at the Co-operative. “This might include the use of skinpacks for steaks or cleverly designed perforations for asparagus, for example. Looking forward, we will see more developments in customer convenience, such as more cook-in-pack products and peel-and-reseal packaging.”

Technology talks

With ambitions to double in size yet reduce its environmental impact, Unilever is one large enterprise that’s taking practical steps forward. The company has developed what it calls its ‘sustainable living plan’ to bolster its environmental credentials, in which packaging innovation will play a large part.

To this end, the company has started to use new technologies in its packaging processes, such as MuCell’s extrusion blow moulding (EBM). Currently used in its Dove range, the process reduces the density of the package’s plastic but maintains the substrate’s integrity and the package’s 100% recyclability.

Brands are also working to ensure that the end-of-life status of their packaging meets their values. Sustainable trader Alter Eco’s new Gone4Good range of stand-up pouches, for example, comprise plant-based, non-GMO materials, for an alternative to conventional polyethylene/LLPDE pouches. With 17 billion plastic pouches across the US sent to landfill in 2013, according to a study by PCI Films Consulting, this innovation is welcome.

Ecolean, a Sweden-based developer of packaging for the dairy sector, is also making strides in pouch packaging. The aseptic material in its lightweight packages uses 50% less raw material than the previous package, and the addition of calcium carbonate to the substrate delivers further lightweighting: an empty pack weighs just 14.3g. This means significant reductions in the impact of the product’s transportation, which enables Ecolean to vastly improve its stated and supported corporate social responsibility.

 

Green practices

Various sustainable materials are continuing to make inroads into specific packaging sectors as vendors seek to differentiate their businesses. Ampoule packaging materials, for example, are currently seeing a growth in demand as environmental concerns rise. According to Technavio, the global market for ampoule packaging will see CAGR of over 8% by 2020.

While ampoules are traditionally made of “conventional plastics, which do not decompose easily”, says Sharan Raj, one of Technavio’s lead industry analysts for packaging, “vendors are adopting sustainable materials to reduce the dependency on conventional plastics and adopt ecofriendly practices. The emergence of green plastics or biodegradable plastics will fuel the growth of the market during the forecast period.”

Material providers are also quick to note that the drive for environmentally friendly packaging is not only of benefit to the planet, but also to companies’ finances.

Richard Mattison, chief executive of Trucost, says, “By assessing the environmental cost benefits of sustainable plastic initiatives, companies and governments can better understand the business case for investment.”

The impact of such thinking is wide-reaching. “Companies now realise that environmental sustainability has a positive impact not only on the communities they serve, but also on their own bottom line,” agrees Doug Woodring, cofounder of the Ocean Recovery Alliance. “Managing the plastic ecosystem through recycling, reuse and closed-loop methods can create jobs, save money, improve brand value and create supply-chain efficiency.”

 

Progress at the top

In January, a partnership between McDonald’s and James Cropper made a major move to improve the recyclability of McDonald’s paper cups. Over 2.5 billion cups are used across the UK each year, with the vast majority going to landfill because of their PE coating. The partnership will enable paper cups used in McDonald’s restaurants across the UK to be collected by Simply Cups and recycled at James Cropper’s state-of-the-art reclaimed-fibre plant, turning previously unrecyclable plastic-coated paper cups into new paper products.

Helen McFarlane, environment consultant at McDonald’s UK, said, “Paper cups constitute about 30% of our packaging waste, and this is a great opportunity to ensure that the quality fibre used in making those cups gets another life. We have recently started to introduce recycling stations in our restaurants to allow customers to separate paper cups, and we’re eager to see what this trial with James Cropper and Simply Cups will look like, hopefully helping set up the infrastructure for others to use in future.”

Similarly, The Body Shop recently announced that it would be using AirCarbon from Newlight Technologies – a thermoplastic that behaves in the same way as plastics derived from petrochemicals – in some of its packaging. The material is already in use by technology giant Dell for its laptop packaging.

“The Body Shop has a tradition of leadership in environmental innovation, and we are very pleased to partner with it with the aim of introducing AirCarbon materials into the beauty industry,” says Newlight CEO Mark Herrema.  “Caps and containers can be more than caps and containers: they can be part of how we create a better world.”

Christopher Davis, international director of sustainability at The Body Shop, echoed the sentiment: “We are excited about our new research partnership with Newlight. We share their philosophy that a more sustainable future can be achieved through working together, embracing innovation and driving new ways of thinking.”

 

Sustainability of business

As well as saving money and resources with the use of ecofriendly packaging, there is a clear commercial imperative for brands to develop strong environmental protection initiatives. Research from Nielsen indicates that 55% of global online consumers across 60 countries say they are willing to pay more for products and services provided by companies that are committed to positive social and environmental impact, for instance.

The propensity to buy socially responsible brands is strongest in the Asia-Pacific region (with 64% consumers confirming the above), Latin America, the Middle East and Africa (at 63%), North America (42%), and Europe (40%). This translates into an increase of 2% on annual sales when compared with companies that have no environmental improvement programme in place.

“Consumers around the world are saying loud and clear that a brand’s social purpose is among the factors that influence purchase decisions,” says Amy Fenton, global leader of public development and sustainability at Nielsen. “This behaviour is on the rise and it provides opportunities for meaningful impact in our communities, in addition to helping to grow share for brands.”

Do business better

Dave Challis, vice-president of innovation and sustainability at Reckitt Benckisser, tells Packaging Today, “Packaging is a critical part of delivering products to the consumer. Packaging, like all materials, generates emissions across its life cycle and this can cause air pollution. Taking steps to optimise packaging has multiple environmental benefits, including reducing the amount of raw materials and energy in manufacturing the packaging itself, reducing fuel use and emissions in the transportation of products, making products easier to recycle, and reducing the amount of waste generated in the first place. This all contributes to reducing potential air pollution.

“At Reckitt Beckisser, as part of our ‘betterbusiness’ strategy, we aim to reduce the carbon emissions across our product life cycles by a third by 2020. To enable this, we’ve developed an app to help guide the development of low-impact products. It provides our scientists with real-time feedback on the carbon and water impacts of their packaging and formulation decisions. In 2015, 50% of the products in our pipeline had less packaging than their predecessors.”

Brands need to be constantly innovating to make their packaging more sustainable with every development. As consumers become more sensitive to the environmental impact of goods they purchase, a strong corporate social responsibility is a necessity, no matter which market sector a business operates within.

Companies that show an appreciation of such factors – and actively work to restructure their environmental policies – will gain favour with consumers, who may illustrate brand loyalty with higher sustained spending.

 



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