Pursuing Preferable Packaging

Background

Today businesses in the United States distribute products globally and many companies are not aware of the complex international packaging requirements and associated taxes and fees imposed on product packaging. Innovative businesses recognize the cost savings associated with reducing or redesigning packaging and are taking steps to reduce the fees levied on their product’s packaging. Recent state, national and international laws impose new environmental requirements and taxes on sales, distribution, and transport packaging. The European Union (EU) has adopted the Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste, requiring each member state to meet packaging reduction goals.

Packaging was reduced reduced byng a polystyrene wedge. Source: Catalogue for the Prevention of Packaging Waste, French Ministryof thee Environment, pg. 49.

Europe continues to promote and legislate packaging reduction programs and initiatives. Compliance with the European Directive on  Packaging and Packaging Waste, as well as with other EU policies concerning environment and health, is an essential requirement for those nations wishing to participate in Europe's economic revolution. Thus, European Commission (EC) member nations, and those countries seeking membership in the European Union, face powerful incentives to promote effective and measurable packaging reduction and recycling efforts. Increasingly, U.S.-based businesses find that product packaging designed in the U.S. is not acceptable, or is more costly, in the European and Asian marketplace. For U.S. products to remain competitive in the global marketplace, they must be packaged using materials and designs that are acceptable for sale in Europe and Asia.

Many Europeans agree that businesses would have taken little or no action to reduce packaging had the Directive not mandated a compulsory program. A considerable debate is currently raging in the EU, specifically concerning recycling goals and targets and the adequacy of the recycling infrastructure to accommodate demand. Nevertheless, manufacturers, retailers, and regulators alike generally agree that, targets and infrastructure aside, the packaging waste legislation is inspiring significant and rapid progress toward waste reduction.

Results of the Directive on Product Packaging

More and more emerging packaging designs incorporate light-weighting and improved protection configurations. A new emphasis on multi-trip reusable packaging is gaining a stronghold. Realizing the outreach effectiveness of models, many innovative waste reduced packaging designs are recognized in awards programs sponsored by Third Party Organizations and European Environmental Ministries. A growing emphasis on the new "essential requirements" is promoting the establishment of a new set of metrics against which to evaluate packaging. These essential requirements, when passed, will mandate minimized packaging, reusable, recyclable, and recoverable packaging, and restrictions on heavy metal content. These will not be optional for those businesses doing business in Europe.

Many U.S.-based product manufacturers are benefiting from their lessons learned in terms of the potential cost savings of packaging reduction efforts. Many U.S. businesses, besieged by inquires from their overseas offices, importers, and retailers each day, must respond to questions regarding the material type and weight of the packaging components they export to Europe and Asia. Other U.S.-based businesses have yet to consider the cost impact of the European packaging activities and legislation on their profitability and sales. Innovative leaders, well connected with their European-based operations, are starting to make packaging design changes that will enhance their competitiveness in Europe and Asia.

Preferable Packaging Tips

Successful businesses understand that changing product packaging requires close coordination of packaging designers, corporate product placement staff, packaging manufacturers, distribution centers and retailers in both the U.S. and abroad. The following packaging reduction tips may help you devise strategies for improving your product packaging, preventing packaging waste, and reducing the cost of placing your product for sale in Europe and Asia.

Consider your place in the packaging and product distribution chain to determine which packaging reduction strategies you can pursue. The following tips provide strategies to reduce your packaging and recommend ways to increase the compatibility of your packaging materials with recycling programs.

    Package Elimination and Minimization

Patagonia™ paperband packaging.

• Eliminate unnecessary packaging when possible. Many manufacturers and distributors have found ways to eliminate secondary packaging. For example, manufacturers of many personal care products, such as shampoos and deodorants, no longer package their products in outer boxes. The businesses adopting this strategy save on the purchase cost of the boxes as well as reducing the waste they introduce into commerce. Innovative clothing retailers, such as Patagonia™, also have eliminated excessive packaging from their clothing lines by substituting a paperband in place of plastic film bags, thus significantly reducing packaging waste, as well as the cost to package their product.

• Minimize the amount of material used in packaging components. Reducing the thickness of packaging material or light-weighting the package also may reduce your packaging costs. Improved manufacturing techniques that distribute materials evenly along the container walls make lighter containers feasible. Packaging manufacturers are increasingly offering lightweight stand-up pouches to replace heavier rigid containers. Changing your packaging designs requires coordination and input from various members of your product and packaging team. By working with the distribution facilities where your products are filled and packaged, and by coordinating with your retail operators who will prepare the displays for your new packaging you can devise practical, cost saving strategies.

• Increase product density, to reduce the size of packaging. Concentrated formulas, such as fruit juice and laundry detergent concentrates, require less packaging for the same number of servings or applications.

• Change the shape of the package to decrease package-to-product ratio. If you can decrease your packaging to product ratio, you can lessen the waste you introduce and you may realize packaging cost savings as well. For example, one manufacturer changed the packaging for their frozen food products from an oval tray design to a rectangular one, a change that allowed for a thinner, lighter tray, thus reducing the amount of plastic film and cardboard casing required.

• Develop packaging that can be incorporated as part of the product. When the packaging serves as part of the product, you can reduce or even eliminate packaging waste. For example, an insulation casing for pumps that serves to protect the components during shipment and offers insulation against high and low temperatures when installed with the pump, serves both as package and product.

    Refillable/Reusable/Returnable Packaging

• Use returnable/reusable containers when shipping and receiving products and materials. Vendors that deliver on a regular basis may be able to back-haul reusable containers, such as plastic totes, racks, or trays. In addition, your facility may be able to arrange for back-hauling from other facilities when products are shipped. Reusable racks may cost more initially, but the cost of disposal and the continuing cost of purchasing disposable packaging (e.g., corrugated cardboard boxes) will soon outweigh the capital costs of reusable packaging.

   Reusable vs. Disposable Shipping Containers

• Establish a returnable packaging system. Depending on the level of packaging necessary to transport the product to the customer’s home or business, customers can pay a deposit and take the returnable package with them, or they can leave it at the shop. The retailer can then return the empty containers to the manufacturers for reuse, thereby eliminating packaging waste.

• Package products in refillable containers with refills that use less packaging. Many products are sold in containers that can be refilled and reused multiple times. If your product is not traditionally sold at a retail outlet that provides for refilling, consider offering a refillable container to the end-use customer, who can then purchase concentrated product to mix into the refillable container.

    Recyclability/Recovered Content

• Manufacture packages that are easily recycled. When specifying product packaging, survey the recycling markets to determine the recycling options available to the majority of your customers. Many products claim to be "recyclable" and carry the recycling chasing arrow logo. However, some of the communities where your packaging is discarded may not have a recycling program that accepts the packaging material. For example, PET containers are recycled in many communities and markets for the recycled material continue to develop. In contrast, PVC containers are not a major component of the post-consumer recycling stream due to the fact that the necessary infrastructure for recycling and processing post-consumer PVC has yet to be developed. In fact, because PVC and PET have similar densities, separation of the two materials is difficult and small amounts of PVC can contaminate the PET recycling stream. Therefore, the presence of PVC packaging components may complicate the recycling process in many communities.

  Bottle with integrated cap. Source: Innovation Prize for Packaging, 1995, Duales System Deutschland GmbH (publisher), pg. 17

• Avoid using composite materials that are difficult to recycle. Certain packaging techniques, such as thermoform blisterpacks, may use paperboard backing cards that are coated with plastic and may not be recyclable. If the packaging components require the use of different materials, design the package so that the individual components can be separated for recycling. Plastic coated paperboard is not designed so the end user can separate the plastic coating from the paperboard, making the material unacceptable in most recycling programs.

• Manufacture containers and caps from the same material. Mono-material plastic bottles can be recycled without risk of contaminating the recycling process.

• Use adhesives that do not interfere with the recycling process. Choose labels, seals, tapes, etc. that use adhesives that disperse in water and wash away in the recycling process.

• Use packaging that is biodegradable. Many types of protective packaging such as starch-based peanuts and molded pulp trays can be composted, thereby eliminating the need for disposal.

  Potato bag made from natura-flex. Source: Innovation Prize for Packaging, 1995, Duales System Deutschland GmbH (publisher), pg.38.

  Examples of Biodegradable packaging include: Potato bag made from natura-flex, a tear-resistant material that is 100% biodegradable. It can be dumped in the compost pile along with the potato skins. Starch-based packaging materials, such as Eco-Foam (http://www.eco-foam.com/, are made from all natural ingredients and completely biodegrade. They can be added to the compost pile or dissolved in water. Molded pulp packaging and containers are manufactured using 100% pre- and post-consumer newsprint, kraft paper and other selected waste papers. Molded pulp packaging quickly decomposes; therefore, it is ideal packaging for plants and flowers since the molded pulp flowerpots can be planted.

• Use recovered-content materials. Use the maximum feasible amount of post-consumer recycled material in the packaging. Specifying and incorporating recycled materials as feedstock into the packaging manufacturing process helps build markets for recyclables.

• Use environmentally sound coatings and dyes. Specify environmentally preferable inks and dyes when designing your packaging. Manufacturers of supplies used in printing process across the country have made significant advances in the printing process, vegetable, water-based, and soy-based inks to achieve effects similar to petroleum-based inks. Check with your printer. Remember to promote your decision to use environmentally preferable inks by indicating their use on your package and in your advertising.

This page was last updated October 2001 by Science Applications International Corporation on behalf of the New York City Department of Sanitation, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, and the US Environmental Protection Agency, Region II.