Green Packaging in the BIG EASY: Pilot Conducted in New Orleans Fish House

New Orleans seafood is going green. Global Green USA’s Coalition for Resource Recovery (CoRR) joined forces this past week with the New Orleans Fish House to test recyclable coated corrugated boxes as methods of transporting locally caught seafood. These innovative boxes, made by CoRR members Cascades Industrial Packaging and Interstate Container, are designed to be recyclable, unlike the paraffin-coated packaging typically used, and also withstand the icy seafood packing process.

“It may seem unusual to get this excited about cardboard boxes, but we are thrilled to highlight these recyclable products,” said Global Green USA’s Lily Kelly, interim director of CoRR. “If we were to replace all the unrecyclable packaging used across the country for seafood, produce, poultry and meats, it would be the equivalent of shutting down an entire coal-fired power plant with no loss of energy, and a tremendous gain in savings and revenue for grocers and restaurants.”

“From a business perspective, it makes perfect sense,” said Eddie Gonzales, Sales Representative at the New Orleans Fish House. “Our customers don’t want to bear the costs of landfilling boxes, so recyclable packaging is an added value that we can offer. It’s the next step in our evolution.”

The pilot began at the New Orleans Fish House, where seafood and ice were placed in the recyclable boxes, palletized, and loaded onto their delivery truck. Representatives from Global Green USA and the packaging companies followed the truck as it made deliveries in the Baton Rouge area, observing the unloading of the seafood at an event venue, a large hotel, and a restaurant. At each location, the recipients of the boxes confirmed that the boxes were performing well, and expressed excitement that they were recyclable. “It will save us time and keep costs and waste down. I love them,” said one recipient.

This pilot marks a step toward more sustainable food systems: greens, vegetables, seafood, and meats are often transported in paraffin-coated cardboard, generating 1.45 million tons of solid waste that must be sent to landfills or burned. If these boxes are designed for recycling, and recovered, retailers and restaurants could realize a net benefit of combined cost savings and revenue of $200 million nationwide.

The boxes, which were donated for testing by Cascades and Interstate Container, are recyclable in accordance with the Fibre Box Association’s recyclability and repulpability protocol for wax-alternative coatings. “The Cascades Polar box, which we tested for this pilot, stood up to the process quite well,” said Islem Yezza, Technical and Business Development Director at Cascades. “We are proud to be able to provide a variety of more sustainable alternatives to unrecoverable polystyrene foam and wax-coated boxes.”

Jeff Cormier, National Sales and Marketing Manager at Interstate Container, was likewise pleased with the results of the pilot. “We make Greencoat recyclable boxes for a variety of uses, and have seen a lot of success with poultry and produce,” he said. “We are very encouraged by the outcome of this pilot, and look forward to bringing recyclable seafood boxes to New Orleans and beyond.” 

Foodservice packaging: The End of a Persistent Environmental Myth

The most persistent environmental myth about foodservice packaging concerns their role in the solid waste stream, and particularly that which ends up in landfills. Year after year, data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency shows that paper and plastic foodservice packaging products make up a tiny portion – under two percent! – of the municipal solid waste discards in landfills in the United States. Compare that to other items that end up in landfills:

Source: FPI

Source: U.S. EnvironmentalProtection Agency. Municipal Solid Waste in the United States: 2011 Facts andFigures

My comments:

• Food waste is the environmental sleeping giant
• In the near future the role of packaging will change; we will see packaging as a resource rather than a resource waster.
• Packaging is part of the solution, not the problem: preventing food waste and saving resources and assuring the safety and security of the food supply
• A bright future for Smart Packaging (active and intelligent): Increasing health and environmental awareness, rising food prices and food safety concerns and improved purchasing power will drive growth in the smart packaging market.

CoRR Paper Foodservice Packaging Conference: Wrap-up and videos

Thanks to Scott Seydel for recording and sharing our last Food Packaging CoRR Conference, held in Washington few weeks ago. 

Discussion Panel

Lily Kelly, Director of Global Green's Coalition for Resource Recycling organized a panel of experts on recyclable wholesale fresh food packaging at the CoRR's member meeting in the nation's Capitol on April 4, 2013. The panel included box manufacturers Islem Yezza of Cascades and Jeremy Bower of Interstate Resources, along with recyclable moisture barrier coating company representatives Dave Grillo from the Chemol Company and Stefan Richwine from Spectra-Kote. Clips of comments from the assembled members are included by Clark Seydel of the Seydel Companies, and Chuck Klass of Klass Associates. Earlier speakers included Sara Hartwell of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Edmund Miller of the U.S. Department of Defense, Chris Weiss of the DC Environmental Network, Mary Lynn Wilhere of the DC Department of the Environment and Taste of Washington, and Hiroki Nanko of Taizen. 

Click Here to watch the Discussion Panel Video (Duration 7:45 min)  

You find below my talk entitled: "Recyclable coated paper for Food service Packaging":

 

Recyclable Coated Paper for Food Service Packaging from Islem Yezza

Chuck Klass of Klass Associates Inc, shared with us latest trends in OCC supply and demand: 1) Prices will continue to escalate; 2) Recyclable barrier coatings replacing waxing can increase supply but are not a long term answer to the shortage 3) Recycling mills may need to utilize alternative sources of recycled fiber 4) Installing a parallel system to process the “side stream” can make economic sense. 

Click Here to watch Chuck Klass Presentation (Duration 27:30 min) 

Hiroki Nanko of Georgia describes machinery, equipment, and processing used in an exciting new processing line that separates plastic laminated films from carton and cup stock fibers such that they can be recycled in conventional recycled paper and linerboard mills. 

Click Here to watch Hiroki Nanko Presentation (Duration 8:20 min) 

Greening Fast Food Packaging

Dogwood Alliance’s report “Greening Fast Food Packaging: A Roadmap to Best Practices,” outlines eight key attributes of environmentally friendly fast food packaging, and provides guidance on how to assess environmental impacts in the supply chain. The report highlights leaders in the fast food industry. It also includes a survey to help assess a company’s current packaging.

1. Embrace Corporate Leadership on Sustainability
2. Use Full Life Cycle and Supply Chain Approach
3. Reduce Overall Packaging and Increase Efficiency
4. Increase the Use of Recycled Fiber
5. Eliminate Paper Originating from Controversial Forestry Practices
6. Increase In-Store Recycling and Recovery
7. Eliminate Toxic Inks, Coatings and Labels
8. Reduce Carbon Footprint

The full report is available at DogwoodAlliance

Results of Recyclable Produce Box Pilots

For the pilots, Global Green USA teamed up with members of their Coalition for Resource Recovery (CoRR) to test alternatives to paraffin-coated produce boxes, which cannot be recycled and are a contaminant within bales of uncoated cardboard. Boxes were tested with a variety of wet cooling processes in California and New Jersey and the results show that many box products with recyclable coatings are robust enough to withstand vacuum cooling, hydro-vac, and hydro-cooling processes.

 

 "The move to recyclable-coated boxes will divert waste from landfills and save money for the foodservice and retail industry," says Lily Kelly, interim director of CoRR and coordinator of the pilots. "It is an exciting time." 

Greens, vegetables, seafood, and meats are often transported in paraffin-coated cardboard, generating 1.45 million tons of solid waste that must be sent to landfills or burned. If these cases were designed for recycling and were recycled, CoRR believes retailers and restaurants could realize a net benefit of combined cost savings and revenue generation of $200 million nationwide. CoRR has worked since 2008 to accelerate the industry adoption of alternative recyclable-coated packaging and recycling it, which could reduce America's annual carbon emissions by 4.5 million mtCO2e—the equivalent of eliminating an entire coal-fired power plant with no loss of energy. (The Fibre Box Association estimates that 5% of OCC is wax-coated. EPA’s 2010 Solid Waste Facts and Figures, WARM Tool, and Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator were used to calculate potential greenhouse gas savings. Savings assumes 100% of the boxes and packaging generated is recycled. National restaurateur and grocers’ savings are based on a national average tipping fee of $44.09, based on the 2010 data in BioCycle’s State of Garbage report. A spot market price of $100/ton of OCC was assumed.) 

Food producers report finding recyclable boxes easier to use than paraffin-coated boxes, and have benefited from being able to recycle them on the farm. “This is good news for farmers and our customers," says Vince Consalo of Consalo and Sons, a produce distributor in Vineland, NJ, who helped to test the recyclable boxes in September. “Recyclability is a big selling point." Other participants in the pilot program also expressed satisfaction with the results, including Lakeside Organic Gardens in Watsonville, CA. 

The results are advantageous for grocers, who may soon be receiving more recyclable-coated boxes that they can bundle with their regular cardboard instead of paying to send them out with the trash. "Selling cardboard is a revenue stream for us, and it helps contribute to our Zero Waste Goals of 2020," says Dom D'Agostino of Ahold Intl., which operates several grocery store chains, including Stop and Shop and Giant. "If we could recycle coated cardboard, it would significantly help us meet these goals." 

Global Green USA's pilot series is slated to continue in 2013. "As a third party, our job is to document these tests and spread the word about what is recyclable and what works,” says Kelly. "Our next steps are to document increasingly tough use of the boxes—wetter cooling and longer distance traveled. We’re confident that these boxes can handle it, and we’re excited to document next year's story in video as well." 

Source 

Five Packaging Trends That Will Shape 2013

Here is my list of 5 packaging trends to watch closely in 2013:

1)   Bio-Based Plastics: Recyclable PET made from renewable resource is projected to offer significant growth potential over the longer term, particularly as large corporations, especially those in the soft drink industry, are investing heavily in the development of this material.

2)     Smart Packaging: The focus of active and intelligent packaging has moved from specific retailer and manufacturer driven benefits like shelf-life extension, traceability and food waste reduction, to include more consumer focused benefits such as food quality and safety, freshness and information.

3)     Stand-up Pouches: Packaged food makers are thinking outside the bottle and can. Flexible packaging, especially stand-up pouches provide Maximum Flexibility, Sustainability and Convenience.They are an innovative marketing approach to stimulate the sales of a stagnant brand or increase the acceptance and success of a new product introduction.

4)     Retail Ready Packaging (RRP): continues to gain traction in North America as a greater number of retailers start to consider implementation, and others broaden the scope of existing initiatives into additional categories

5)     Packaging and social media: Getting found by customers. The new age of inbound marketing is about providing value and earning customer loyalty instead of simply pounding a message into consumers heads and hoping it will stick.

Best wishes for a healthy, wealthy, sustainable and innovative New Year 2013!

1. Biobased Plastic future

According to a recent Smithers RAPRA study (2012), worldwide consumption of all polymers reached about 259 million tonnes in 2012, with bioplastics representing 0.4% at 890,000 tonnes. So why haven’t bioplastics captured a larger market share?  There are four reasons: 

1.   Performance is not matched to brand owner or consumer expectations;

2.   Time-line to market acceptance not realistic;

3.   Bioplastic companies marketing efforts not given enough field support and

4.   Difficulties selling to an uninformed customer base and an uninformed end-user base. 

With abundant feedstocks of sugarcane, corn and biomass, it is not surprising that activity remains strong in Brazil and the US. According to The Freedonia Group, global demand for biodegradables and bio-based plastics will more than triple to exceed 1m tonnes, worth $2.9bn, in 2015. US demand for bioplastics is forecast to climb at a 20 percent annual pace through 2016 to 550 million pounds, valued at $680 million. 

2. Smart packaging: active and intelligent packaging

Increasing health awareness, rising food and safety concerns and improved purchasing power in emerging economies will drive growth in the global active and intelligent food and drink packaging market. The terms active packaging and intelligent packaging refer to packaging systems that help extend shelf life, monitor freshness, display information on quality, improve safety and increase convenience. Recently this has been updated to include intelligent functions (sensing, detecting, recording, tracing, communicating and applying scientific logic) in order to extend shelf life, enhance safety, improve quality, provide information and warn about possible issues.

Robust growth is anticipated for intelligent packaging, propelled by rapid advances for time-temperature indicators (TTIs) and the emergence of other smart packaging systems offering product differentiation at less costly prices. Smart technology could be able to detect food germs and to trigger colour changes in the packaging to alert the consumer if the contents have gone bad.

According to a recent study by MarketsandMarkets, the global market for active and intelligent packaging technology in food and beverages is expected to grow to $23.474 million in 2015, at an estimated CAGR of 8.2% from 2010 to 2015.

3. Flexible packaging: Stand-up Pouches: Maximum Flexibility, Sustainability and Convenience

Consumers’ nomadic life-styles and the growing number of single and senior households favor a trend toward single and small-portion packs. Flexible packaging, especially stand-up pouches constitute the ideal solution.

Flexible packaging has been shaking up the packaging industry for many years now, especially in the food packaging market, where flexible materials are introducing a wide range of new design concepts to minimise waste (both in terms of conservation and cost), attract consumer attention and maintain the freshness of the products within.

The market of flexible packaging is expected to see annual growth to over 22 million tonnes by 2016.within the flexible market the stand-up pouch has continued to evolve and offer suppliers, brand owners and consumers, solution that looks set to dominate and expand its influence on the flexible packaging markets over the next few years. According to The Freedonia Group, demand for pouches in the US is projected to increase 5.1 percent per year to $8.8 billion in 2016, driven by faster gains for standup pouches stemming from sustainability, functional, and marketing advantages over alternative packaging media.

4.  Retail Ready Packaging

Over time, and under pressure from retailers seeking to improve in-store efficiencies, RRP has emerged as a system designed to reduce the amount of handling required to place products on the retail shelf whilst providing the consumer with easy access to products. Numerous benefits have been identified for these RRP systems, including:

• both consumers and store employees indicating better product recognition
• 'one-touch' shelf replenishment
• streamlined restocking
• less product damage and more attractive, neater shelf appearance

A new study has revealed that retail-ready packaging (RRP) demand is expected to reach 32.1 million tons, worth $63.4bn, by 2017. In 2011, the demand totaled 27 million tons of material, worth over $54bn. According to Smithers Pira's study, titled 'The Future of Retail Ready Packaging to 2017', corrugated board accounted for three-quarters of the total volume of materials used in 2011. Within the segment, die-cut display containers make up more than half the market, decline-wrapped trays constitute 17% of demand and modified cases constitute 5%. RRP demand will be primarily driven by the development of supermarkets, especially in underdeveloped economic regions.

5. Packaging and social media: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest…

It is clear that marketing is changing on a fundamental level as the internet continues to revolutionize how we find, buy, sell, and interact with brands and their products or services. The days of annoying consumers with intrusive advertising and marketing tactics are fading. Traditional Marketing was about pushing messages out. Today it’s about pulling people in. Inbound marketing is a marketing focused on getting found by customers. The new age of marketing is about providing value and earning customer loyalty instead of simply pounding a message into consumers heads and hoping it will stick.

From a recent Canadean report “Global Packaging Industry CEO Business Outlook Survey 2012-2013”, advertising budgets, “email and newsletters,” “social media and networking sites” and “public relations” are expected to register the highest investment, identified by 47%, 44%, and 36%, respectively. Conversely, “television,” “outdoor,” “radio” and “newspaper” advertising is expected to decline. 

Bioplastic in 2013: Trends to watch

In the past, words like "affordable", "recyclable", "durable", "reliable" or "good processability" did not leap to mind when talking about bioplastics. But all that's changing - and changing fast. And as bioplastics continue to reinvent themselves, they are starting to make their mark on the plastics market and industry.

So, what are the major developments to keep an eye on in 2013?

Drop-ins

One of the most important developments from the past few years has been the emergence of what are known as drop-ins, or materials produced from monomer building blocks from biomass feedstocks, that can directly replace conventional petroleum-based plastics. The carbon content of plastics produced on the basis of these biomonomers comes from renewable sources, such as plants or biowaste.

Drop-ins offer a rapid route to market through existing infrastructure and knowhow. Also, new routes are increasingly opening up, bringing the economic production of biomonomers that have the advantage of fitting easily into existing production chains, increasingly within reach.

Potentially all grades of polyethylene, polypropylene and polyvinyl chloride can currently be made via biobased routes, as can various polyamides and polyesters. In fact, a market study from the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Hanover showed that biobased commodity plastics, with a total of around 1 million tonnes, would make up the majority of production capacity in 2015.

The race to develop 100% bio-PET, for example, accelerated this year with Coca-Cola's push to produce a 100% bio-bottle. 100% bio-based PET was successfully produced on lab scale this year; more breakthroughs in this area are expected in the year to come. In fact, according to a European Bioplastics forecast, the next few years are likely to see the largest growth in the production of biobased polyethylene and polyethylene terephthalate. The production capacity for biobased PET will continue to grow through 2016, reaching just over 4.5 million tons, or four-fifths of total bioplastic production capacity.

And, as the technology matures, the affordability of these drop-in materials, for which users must currently still pay a premium, will steadily improve.

Feedstocks

The feedstocks used today to produce bioplastics are mainly starch or sugar derived from corn, potato, sugarcane and beetroot; in other words, from food crops. The use of arable land and edible crops to produce plastics is increasingly perceived as an undesirable development that could increase food prices and contribute to food shortages.

The coming years will see a shift from these so-called first generation feedstocks to second-generation feedstocks such as cellulosics. Cellulosic feedstocks, which consist of crop residues, wood residues, yard waste, municipal solid waste, algae or other biomass, sidestep the conflicts in land use.

They can be converted to sugars via various technologies, including enzymatic hydrolysis and biomass pretreatment. Already, cellulosic feedstocks are being used to produce, among other materials, cellulose acetates and lignin-based polymers. However, for cellulosic feedstocks to really come into their own, more, and more, sophisticated biorefineries are needed that can perform the process steps needed to produce various bioproducts. Once these are in place, a stream of non-food crop based fermentable sugars will become available for energy, chemicals and polymers.

End of life

A direct consequence of the development of biobased drop-ins is that non-biodegradable biopolymers will show the largest growth in the coming years. Whereas biodegradability and/or compostability used to be the characteristic property of bioplastics, more and more biopolymers are now being developed that instead are built to last. As a result, new or better end-of-life solutions will have to be put in place.

More landfills are not an option. An issue that needs to be addressed is that of disposing of the biopolymers being developed from new biobased monomers and polymers, such as furanic polyesters or high-heat resistant PLA. Separate collection and recycling systems are needed to ensure these do not contaminate existing waste streams. More research is needed into the possibilities for chemical and mechanical recycling of these materials. These are all issues that are on the agenda for the coming years.

Additives, modifiers, blends

Another area that will continue to develop strongly is that of biobased additives and modifiers. These are not only relevant for engineering durable biopolymers with enhanced performance properties, but also for developing less hazardous alternatives to conventional modifiers.

Concerns about the safety of the phthalates used as plasticizers in PVC and Bisphenol-A in polycarbonate, among other things, have and will continue to drive the search for more health and environmentally friendly solutions. Increasingly, biobased formulations are also being used to modify conventional materials, as these have been found to enhance the performance of these materials in various ways while at the same time improving their carbon footprint.

Metabolix, for example has developed a series of PHA-based polymeric modifiers that demonstrate very good miscibility with PVC, and improve its mechanical and environmental performance characteristics. Mitsubishi Chemical produces a polycarbonate in which the Bisphenol-A is has been replaced by isosorbide, a biomonomer that can be safely used in food applications. Isosorbide-based copolyesters are extremely promising materials that offer enhanced performance properties. PLA, blended with PMMA, enhances the processability and other properties far beyond those of conventional acrylic resins.

These are developments that may be expected to open up hitherto unimagined possibilities for biopolymers in the future.

Geography

A striking finding of a report released in October this year by European Bioplastics was that increasingly, new bioplastic production facilities are being built in Asia and South America. In fact, in 2016, Asia is predicted to be home to 46.3% of the global bioplastic production capacity. South America is projected to have nearly as much capacity in place, with just over 45%. A main driver is feedstock availability. Specifically, Thailand has expressed the ambition to become bioplastics production hub of Southern Asia, and is taking concrete steps in the form of investments and joint ventures to realize this, while in Brazil, Braskem, already the world's leading producer of bio-PE, has targeted 2013 as the year to bring its bio PP facility on stream.

Europe and North America excel at research and development, but are lagging in the production department. Andy Sweetman, chairman of European Bioplastics, pointedly remarked at the Bioplastics Conference in November of 2012 that it is time for decisions to be made if Europe wishes to profit from the growth in the bioplastics industry - a comment that also applies equally well to North America.

It's something to keep in mind for 2013.

Source

Converting Quarterly: Five sustainability trends that will shape packaging

Sustainability has fast become part and parcel of the global packaging industry, whether your product is web-processed plastic flexible packaging, paper-based corrugated containers or rigid metal cans and glass bottles. Packaging converters and their raw-material suppliers are being driven by demands from their direct CPG customers, retailers and consumers to find solutions.

Full article is available online. Click HERE to read the 2012 Quarter 2 Digital Edition NOW.

Greening Fast Food Packaging: A Roadmap to Best Practices

Today, Dogwood Alliance released “Greening Fast Food Packaging: A Roadmap to Best Practices,” which outlines eight key attributes of environmentally friendly fast food packaging, and provides simple guidance on how to assess environmental impacts in the supply chain. The report highlights leaders in the fast food industry that have undertaken key initiatives that will help move the entire sector forward. Also included is a valuable action plan to focus corporate sustainability efforts.

The Dogwood Alliance's eight step to making packaging more environmentally friendly include:

1. Embrace corporate leadership on sustainability: Adopt an environmental packaging policy and get buy-in from leadership.
2. Use a full life cycle and supply chain approach: Determine the complete scope of impacts from packaging along the entire supply chain.
3. Reduce overall packaging and increase efficiency: Minimize packaging, make it lighter.
4. Increase use of recycled fiber
5. Eliminate paper from controversial forestry practices (with this step, Dogwood Alliance wades into the ongoing debate on sustainable forestry, urging companies should use only paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council and avoid paper certified by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative.)
6. Increase in-store recycling and recovery: Provide recycling within restaurants and encourage recycling when customers take packaging away.
7. Eliminate toxic inks and labels.
8. Reduce carbon footprint: Make transportation more efficient through better shipping setups and fuel-efficient vehicles.

Ikea switches from wooden to paper pallets

Ikea, which uses 10 million pallets to ship goods from suppliers to its 287 stores in 26 countries, will ditch wood worldwide by January, cutting transport costs by 10 percent. The new corrugated cardboard design can support loads of 750 kilograms (1,650 pounds), the same as timber, Skjelmose says. At two inches high, the paper pallets are one-third the height of wooden ones, and they’re 90 percent lighter, at 5.5 pounds. The svelte profile means Ikea can cram more goods into each shipment. The pallets, assembled onsite by most of Ikea’s 1,200 global suppliers, will be used only once before being recycled.

Read more…

Tackling food waste in Europe and how good packaging can play a role

Corrugated of Course interviewed Andrew Parry from WRAP UK, Nina von Radowitz from Metro Group and Selina Juul from Stop Wasting Food Denmark at Combating Food Waste in the EU 2011. We asked them their thoughts on food waste in Europe and how packaging plays a role in battling the issue.

Cisco's Packaging Diet: Just How Sustainable is It?

Packaging is too often a manifestation of excess and waste. All that extra cushioning. All of those individually wrapped parts. Not to mention packaging that is not easily recycled. Product manuals and accessories that are often just thrown away.

Eighteen months ago, I reported on the packaging problem and encouraged vendors to go on a "packaging diet." My two-part series focused on best practices for packaging reduction. One of my case studies in the series, Cisco's promising pilot program, was highlighted in the Esty / Simmons sequel The Green To Gold Business Playbook.

But since, as with many diets, the easy part is often the early stages, I wanted to learn how Cisco was doing over the long-term. Glenn Nomi, Cisco's program manager of green technologies and Oleg Kolosov, manager of Cisco's packaging team, met with me and provided an update.

The top-line takeaway: The packaging diet is working. Cisco continues to expand its program to more products while refining its packaging practices. The program applies to both shipments to Cisco's customers as well as Cisco's internal shipments to its manufacturing partner sites.

Cisco's green packaging program uses three strategies:

1. Remove items that are not wanted from a shipment,
2. Reduce packaging, and
3. Replace with more environmentally friendly packaging

Read more…

A Global Language for Packaging and Sustainability

New global guidelines on packaging sustainability will help companies reduce their carbon footprint while boosting efficiency and spur more effective communication between players throughout the supply chain, said Unilever’s Nigel Bagley.

The director of industry relations for the multinational giant delivered his assessment as the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) released its Global Protocol on Packaging Sustainability (GPPS).

The guide was designed by a broad group of retailers and brand owners, in conjunction with packaging suppliers and manufacturers. The steering group included representatives from industry leaders such as Nestle, Unilever, Walmart, Tesco, Kraft and Proctor & Gamble.

Common language

The comprehensive document, targeted at the packaging and consumer goods industries, aims to provide a “common language” to help them cut the environmental footprint of their packing, said the CGF, a global industry alliance made up of over 650 leading companies from the packaging, retail and consumer good sectors.

The body added that the agreed definitions and metrics set out in the protocol would make it easier for businesses to tackle a range of commercial questions about packaging sustainability - either in-house or between their partners in the value chain.

The 74-page guide sets out a framework to outline and assess the relative sustainability of packaging, said the CGF.

It outlines a choice of indicators to take into account for making business decisions. These include life-cycle phases, the level at which an indicator could be used and at what part in the business. The report also examines the use of life-cycle assessments in product development, availability of data, types of packaging, as well as economic, social and environmental metrics.

Benefits to industry

Unilever’s Bagley said the protocol introduced harmony and simplicity to a hugely complicated issue that would allow companies to focus more keenly on improving operational efficiencies.

“This is a really significant project because a common language means it’s easier to communicate with our trading partners,” he added. “And less time spent having to agree definitions and filling in such things as sustainability scorecards, means we can focus on bringing benefits to the value chain.”

The standardised terminology and metrics also made it easy to operate in multiple languages and avoid duplication of effort, said the industry relations chief.

“The common language avoids duplication of effort in trying to make sure the definitions with use with French retailers are identical to those with German ones,” said Bagley giving just one example. “We avoid repetition and increase simplification and harmonisation. This improves efficiency and allows us to focus on other things.”

While the CGF is developing a number of other projects on sustainability, packaging was seen as the vital starting point, he said.

“Packaging is spearheading the movement towards a number of other carbon strategies,” Bagley added. “Packaging is something we could put our arms around and now we are working on other partnership projects.”

The European Organization for Packaging and the Environment (Europen) welcomed the publication of the protocol.

"As the European organization representing the major players in the packaging value chain on packaging and environment issues, Europen welcomes the releaseof the Protocol and will encourage all our members to embrace it and use it in their efforts to achieve their business sustainability goals," said the industry body's managing director Julian Carroll. "Optimal packaging solutions, developed with the aid of the Protocol, can make a substantial contribution to more sustainable consumer products."

To read a full copy of the Global Protocol on Packaging Sustainability click Here

Source