Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Packaging is inescapable: nearly every product produced and sold comes in packaging, a lot of which is used once and thrown away. How can businesses improve their approach to packaging, maximising its value and eliminating waste?
For leaders ready to do good. Research, case studies, podcasts, toolkits, actions: everything to help you fast track doing business for good.
[00:00:00] Gillian Pereira: This is part two of our series on the great packaging pile up and finding better ways to wrap up our goods.
[00:00:09] Gill & Simon: Hey Gill. Hello Simon. How are you?
[00:00:11] Good. Back in Melbourne. Here we are back again. And today, what are we talking about? We're diving into part two of packaging. We covered a lot of ground in our first part of this series.
[00:00:22] So if you haven't listened to that, go back and have a listen.
[00:00:25] Gillian Pereira: In our previous episode, as part of this series, we looked at the concrete realities of packaging. We heard a cautionary tale about the humble plastic carrier bag and learned about the life cycle assessment. There were case studies about Heinz and Kester Black and some practical advice to businesses getting started on improving their packaging.
[00:00:45] Gill & Simon: Outtakes for me was how complicated it is, how expensive. How long these things take over time. And also how just different materials aren't just better than others.
[00:00:53] It's much more nuanced.
[00:00:54] Today, what are we talking about next?
[00:00:56] we're going a little bit further with the claims and terms that we see often written on packaging or said about packaging, like recyclable, recycled content, reusable, all these terms and trying to demystify really what they mean in practice. We give some advice to businesses around how they can tell customers what to do with packaging once it's in their hands.
[00:01:18] Gillian Pereira: We'll also be sharing another framework to help businesses improve their packaging approach from the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute.
[00:01:27] Monica Becker: Cradle to Cradle seeks to reframe design as a positive force, which inspires us to constantly seek improvement.
[00:01:37] Gill & Simon: We actually had Monica Becker from Cradle to Cradle on a webinar, where she said what they're doing and the challenges they're facing and some really great advice. So yeah, check out that webinar recording on our website.
[00:01:48] (Music interlude)
[00:01:48] Gillian Pereira: More and more customers expect businesses to use more environmentally friendly packaging. But perceptions don't always line up with the actual environmental impacts of various packaging options.
[00:02:02] A survey of consumer sentiments towards sustainability in packaging by McKinsey revealed that for beverages and household products in particular, customers are requesting more glass packaging. However, lifecycle assessments have shown that glass bottles may have a greater negative environmental impact than their plastic counterparts.
[00:02:23] Anna Ross: People were like, we'll use glass but glass is not the solution either because glass has got a huge environmental footprint. So it's really interesting, the plastic dilemma where plastic has a less environmental footprint than glass and it's more recyclable generally.
[00:02:40] Gillian Pereira: That was Anna Ross, Founder of Kester Black.
[00:02:43] Gill & Simon: Yeah. It's so interesting that almost the symbol of waste and packaging , the bad part of it is plastic. But what I've learned through this, and what you're finding is that, the alternatives and glass takes heaps of carbon to produce it, lots of material, lots of resources, and they're often not reused. And then the cost of recycle them is really high. Yes, environmentally.
[00:03:04] Yeah. And it's one of those things where what's maybe intuitive to us as individuals. Isn't always what is true in reality. And that life cycle assessment framework we talked about last time is really helpful for actually working out what's really happening with these resources and this packaging.
[00:03:20] Gillian Pereira: In 2022 Retail Week released a report on consumers' attitudes to sustainability and its impact on their spending habits in the UK. They found almost half of consumers, 49% believe paper bags to be more sustainable than plastic and a number of consumers consider multinational fast fashion retailer Primark to be the most sustainable brand, purely because of its use of paper bags.
[00:03:47] For a fast fashion brand like Primark, merely using paper bags at checkouts has been enough to create a positive eco-friendly perception in the minds of customers. Yet there is research to suggest that paper bags tend to have a higher carbon footprint. A UK Environment Agency study uncovered that paper bag production requires more raw materials and energy and produce more waste than the equivalent process for plastic bags.
[00:04:14] It's stated that a paper bag must be used at least three times to decrease its impact on the environment to match that the plastic bag used just once.
[00:04:23] So it's a confusing space out there and the answers aren't always clear.
[00:04:27] We see an increasing number of green claims on packaging, but how much of it is environmentally sound and how much of it is greenwashing? It's difficult to compare the virtues and vices of different packaging materials because each type of packaging has different impacts at different points in its life. But with that in mind, let's talk about some common terms and claims about packaging and see how businesses should use them.
[00:04:53] First off, recyclable. Recyclable packaging materials are those that can be processed and converted into new materials and products that there's a market for. Recyclability of packaging largely depends on context. Recycling relies on people having access to infrastructure, which is not always available.
[00:05:13] So effectiveness can vary. Single material packaging is much easier to recycle compared to multimaterial packaging.
[00:05:22] A report from the U N E P and Consumers International explains, "Most recyclable plastic claims use the universal recycling symbol and a general statement directing the consumer to recycle. Some provide additional instructions to facilitate proper recycling methods. Others are lacking in guidance or require action from the consumer to enable partial recycling of the packaging.
[00:05:47] While these brands should be commended for giving clear instructions to consumers, it could also be argued that they allow companies to shift the burden to consumer. Better design products and packaging could avoid the need for consumer disassembly in the first place."
[00:06:03] So where's all this recyclable material ending up? A national audit in the UK found a sixfold increase in exports of packaging material for recycling abroad between 2002 and 2017 with exports accounting for about half of the packaging reported as recycled.
[00:06:21] Gill & Simon: So this is that example of sending it to another country. They deal with it, but you don't actually know what's happening. Exactly.
[00:06:27] Gillian Pereira: There's little visibility over what happens to the packaging materials once they've been shipped overseas, despite these shipments being counted as recycled. Added to this, some countries have banned imports of unsorted, recycling materials due to concerns about contamination and the burden of waste being shifted across borders.
[00:06:47] Gill & Simon: This is something that I think a lot of people in Australia where I live in Victoria had learnt about recently where in media, in the news, we've seen these massive warehouses of plastic just piled up in pallets and pallets that was technically recycled or for recycling but never actually made it.
[00:07:05] Yeah. So there's also those changes. Yeah.
[00:07:07] YC Lai: Hi. My name is YC Lai.
[00:07:11] Gillian Pereira: YC Lai is the founder of Eco Pacific in Malaysia, which supplies a range of packaging made from agricultural waste products like rice straw.
[00:07:20] YC Lai: A lot of the big manufacturing companies are facing a tremendous shortage because some of the countries have actually stopped and forbid the importation of recycled paper, not to mention recycled plastic. So that is actually provide a lot of issues and problems for a lot of companies.
[00:07:42] Gill & Simon: And I heard that, like, China was a major buyer of our recycled material. What you're gonna call it. But they've since reduced purchasing from us as well. Yes. Which triggered that issue cause they, they didn't buy anymore.
[00:07:53] Gillian Pereira: Next on the list of terms is recycled content. This can have two meanings. First it can refer to post-consumer recycled material. These are materials made from what we've put in our recycling bins, which are sorted, processed into pellets or molded into new shapes and then sold.
[00:08:12] Gill & Simon: So this is hopefully what happens with our stuff in the recycling bin. And it gets turned into these pellets and it's used for new products that what we're hoping for. Yes, exactly.
[00:08:21] Gillian Pereira: Or it can refer to post-industrial recycled material. That is, it uses the waste generated from the original manufacturing process. Let's take an example. When making soda cans a roll of aluminium is cut into round pieces that are then molded into the traditional can shape. Scraps from the cutting process are then melted down rolled again, and the process continues.
[00:08:46] Gill & Simon: I haven't thought of the side of the material as an input. Is this industrial stuff a much bigger and more significant source of potential materials?
[00:08:55] I think post-industrial recycled content has been the norm for a longer period of time because you've got materials that are fit for purpose right there in the factory. It's just a matter of remolding them and following the same process to cut out more shapes for your packaging. Whereas post-consumer recycled is more of an opportunity in terms of this potential scale of it that hasn't been explored yet. Whereas with post industrial that may have always just happened as part of the process of producing something.
[00:09:23] Yeah. You've got the material resource right there in front of you. With post-consumer recycled, it's more of an opportunity to divert it from landfill because this is materials that would otherwise go to waste.
[00:09:34] Yeah. So basically a business has leftover stuff. They're probably gonna try and work hard to make the most of that. Whereas consumer waste is just gonna go with the bin and so that's the opportunity. Yes.
[00:09:43] While there's this post industrial process happening, maybe there's also still lots to be done.
[00:09:47] Yeah. And I think as we'll hear, it's really a matter of demand outstripping supply. So more and more businesses are wanting to use post-consumer recycled content. At the moment with all the different supply chain challenges the world's seen over the last few years, as well as restrictions on importing recycled material and processing it, there's a bit of a mismatch there at the moment. Yep.
[00:10:07] Monica Becker: Companies are shifting more to the use of recycled content in packaging and particularly post consumer recycled content, which is materials from packages or other things that, consumers have used.
[00:10:20] And those materials can be essentially a whole mix of things and it's more challenging when post-consumer recycled content or just recycled content in general is used in packaging because the raw materials are more heterogeneous than homogenous.
[00:10:38] Gillian Pereira: While a wide range of packaging materials may technically be recyclable there needs to be a sufficient demand for the resulting materials for recycling to make economic sense. The use of PCR content in packaging helps create that demand while also reducing the demand for virgin materials. As the proportion of PCR content used in packaging can vary from anywhere between 10% and 100%, businesses using PCR content should really be transparent about the current ratios in their product packaging. As demand for post-consumer recycled material grows, finding an adequate supply can be challenging. So businesses should factor that into their planning.
[00:11:23] Monica Becker: Challenges around availability of post-consumer recycled content material. There's been such an increase in demand for it. Especially now, with, supply chain issues, lead times can be long. For small companies, there can be a challenge to getting exactly what you want, given the demand for PCR materials. The practical advice would be to plan ahead and expect delays.
[00:11:50] Gillian Pereira: What about the packaging claims compostable or biodegradable. Are they one and the same? Well biodegradable as a claim is unevenly regulated and is a catchall for a range of bio based or fossil fuel based materials with varying conditions needed for the materials to properly break down. All plastics are degradable over time, but to be biodegradable, the materials return to nature when they break down.
[00:12:19] YC Lai: I think there have been a misuse of the word biodegradable, because if you are not plant-based you cannot say is bio-degradable you can only say is degradable, so they can degrade into smaller micro-plastic components.
[00:12:36] Gill & Simon: So this degradable concept where the plastic turns into microplastics, that's not better just means the microplastics now being eaten by fish and us. Yes. That it's degraded. And so it's about understanding, biodegradable.
[00:12:50] Gillian Pereira: The claim compostable can also have different meanings. Commercially compostable materials are those that can be broken down in a commercial composting facility. For some countries, this is an available service as part of their curbside waste management systems. But for most places, that's just not the case as yet.
[00:13:09] Compostable can also refer to home compostable materials. These are ones that can be broken down in your regular households, composting systems. Again, the take up of these systems can really be limited if composting isn't widespread.
[00:13:25] YC Lai: So when we are talking about compostable, we are talking of plant-based organic materials that degrades even exposure to temperature, humidity, and so on. And they will then break up easily with the soil without any harm to it and all.
[00:13:43] Gill & Simon: Yeah, I learn about this compostable issue where a client of ours had a compostable coffee cup.
[00:13:50] All components would biodegrade in a home setting. But it would take a certain amount of time. Even your home costing needs to It's just more complicated than you think.
[00:14:00] Yes. And if you can't just go, oh yeah, it's possible. So a tick done.
[00:14:03] Gillian Pereira: So in theory, a piece of packaging may be compostable, but if a composting system isn't accessible to consumers, it's likely to end up in landfill.
[00:14:11] Hopefully we'll see this change as composting systems become more readily available.
[00:14:17] On that point, businesses should really think about whether the claims they make on packaging actually work in practice in their context.
[00:14:25] Gill & Simon: So we've covered recyclable, recycled content, biodegradable, compostable.
[00:14:33] Now let's think about reusable.
[00:14:35] Gillian Pereira: More and more we're seeing the claim reusable associated with packaging. A high priority for circular economy solutions, reusable packaging maintains the highest possible value of the material. And it avoids the energy use involved in processing packaging waste. Problems come when packaging labeled as reusable is actually treated as single use and disposed of.
[00:14:59] For example, take bans on single use plastic bags. These have led retailers to produce reusable bags from thicker plastic, which use more resources to produce and are likely to be disposed of.
[00:15:13] The U N E P notes that as more governments push to legislate against single use plastic, the risk of this poor practice may grow.
[00:15:21] Gill & Simon: What poor practice are you talking about there?
[00:15:23] So the poor practice here is where companies are labeling bags that are really intended for single use as reusable.
[00:15:31] Right. And getting around the regulations by using a thicker plastic, because often the single use plastic bans have regulations around the density of the plastic that's used. So by making a slightly thicker plastic bag that is still destined for the bin, companies are able to thwart the regulations. Yep.
[00:15:51] Gillian Pereira: For reusable packaging to be effective, it needs to fit within a broader system that supports reuse. That could be a return in reuse program, a refill program, as well as other education initiatives to support customers, to continue to reuse their packaging.
[00:16:07] Monica Becker: So we're seeing more and more companies, trying at least to design packaging that can be reused or can be part of some type of refill system.
[00:16:17] Gillian Pereira: We'll be finding out more about these kind of programs and systems in a future episode.
[00:16:23] So we've touched on some of the common claims on packaging that this isn't an exhaustive list. If your business is ready to review your packaging claims and terms, your best course of action is to consult the International Organization for Standardization. It provides internationally agreed standards for a range of environmental claims, which include compostable degradable, recyclable, recycled content pre-consumer material, post-consumer material, recovered material, reusable, refillable.
[00:16:59] The next thing to do is to make sure you support your packaging claims with clear instructions on what customers are to do next.
[00:17:07] Imagine this your business designs the most refined packaging solution that eliminates unnecessary packaging, reduces the amount of materials used, and opts for an environmentally sound packaging material that can be reused or repurposed in some way.
[00:17:23] Sounds good. Right?
[00:17:24] If your business, then doesn't clearly communicate to customers about what to do with that item of packaging in their hands, it may well end up contaminating recycling streams, in landfill, or even leaking into the environment. Simply communicating that an item of packaging is say, biodegradable, doesn't give clear direction to the individual holding it about what to do next.
[00:17:48] Even the universal recycling symbol can also be misleading.
[00:17:53] A study that looked at the drivers and barriers to consumers, plastic packaging, waste, avoidance, and recycling found that the recycling symbols use without text assumes that all customers understand its meaning or that all the product's material can be recycled. It also shows that the packaging is recyclable, but not that this recycling is actually available via local infrastructure.
[00:18:18] So, what does good labeling look like in practice? Guidelines and regulations vary between countries as do the packaging processing options available. But as an example, the Australasian Recycling Label is an evidence based system for packaging labels that provides people with clear direction about what to do next with their packaging.
[00:18:40] Gill & Simon: I think I've seen this on stuff before. Bottles that have two little icons on them, the lid is recyclable and the bottle is not. Yes. It gives much more clarity and direction . It seems like a pretty big improvement.
[00:18:52] it's a huge improvement. And by giving the clear instructions on what to do next, both with the symbol and in writing, I think it's a big help for customers to actually do what they're already wanting to do to process the materials properly.
[00:19:03] I'm much more informed just by that simple change.
[00:19:06] Gillian Pereira: For your business, find out the best practice for labeling packaging in your country and apply these to your products.
[00:19:14] So far, we've explored some common claims and terms on packaging and some actions that businesses can take to help clear up the confusion for customers. To help solve the great packaging pile up and find better approaches to packaging, businesses need to look at the bigger picture.
[00:19:34] A framework that helps businesses do just that comes from the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute.
[00:19:40] Monica Becker: We have a vision of a world where safe materials and products are designed and manufactured in a prosperous circular economy to maximize health and wellbeing for people and planet. And how we operationalize our vision is through the Cradle to Cradle Certified program, which is a global science-based multi attribute certification that addresses five critical areas of sustainable performance.
[00:20:10] Gillian Pereira: Material health, ensuring materials are safe for humans in the environment.
[00:20:15] Product circularity, enabling a circular economy through regenerative products and process design,
[00:20:22] Clean air and climate protection, protecting clean air, promoting renewable energy and reducing harmful emissions,
[00:20:30] Water and soil stewardship, which is about safeguarding, clean water and healthy soils.
[00:20:36] And finally, social fairness. This is about respecting human rights and contributing to a fair and equitable society.
[00:20:45] So what might the Cradle to Cradle certification look like in practice?
[00:20:50] As the world's largest cosmetics company, L'Oreal has seen impressive profit growth in recent years. Brands in its portfolio include Garnier, Maybelline, Lancome, Kiehl's, Urban Decay, and Redken as well as the eponymous L'Oreal brand. A number of their products have been Cradle to Cradle Certified and they've made a commitment to reach 100% recycled plastic in their packaging by 2030.
[00:21:16] Gill & Simon: Okay, so L'Oreal a bunch of brands, some of them have been certified Cradle to Cradle, and they want to do a hundred percent recycled plastic by 2030. So what does it mean? What have they done if they become certified?
[00:21:30] So they've gone through the process with Cradle to Cradle of reviewing all of their packaging for a particular range that they're wanting to certify and seeing where are we currently moving in the right direction, what do we need to improve? So part of their certification program might be that, Hey, we are currently at this level in our recycled content and we want to get to here and this is how we're going to get there over the next two years.
[00:21:58] Yeah. So certification doesn't mean they fixed it, it means they've got a plan to, it's been certified. There needs to be some evidence that they're working towards those five different areas, and also a plan to keep improving.
[00:22:10] Monica Becker: L'Oreal has really set industry leading commitments and is pursuing circularity of packaging in many different ways.
[00:22:21] And so, for example, in their Redken line of haircare products which is certified by Cradle to Cradle, their packaging materials are at least 93% post-consumer content and designed for recycling. So using, single materials and so forth to make their plastic bottles more readily recyclable in current recycling systems.
[00:22:50] Gillian Pereira: L'Oreal estimates that since 2018, approximately 600 tons of virgin plastic has been replaced with recycled materials in their products.
[00:23:00] At the same time, L'Oreal is investing in the development of new state-of-the art circular packaging materials, including plastic bottles that are made from industrial carbon emissions. They're also investing in new enzymatic, plastic recycling technology.
[00:23:15] Monica Becker: These are just some examples, but they're leading the way in terms of designing their packaging to be more circular, but also investing in innovative materials and recycling processes for the systems and materials of the future.
[00:23:32] Gillian Pereira: For businesses that are considering certifying their materials, products or packaging via Cradle to Cradle Certified, there are a number of benefits. First, it brings a holistic approach to packaging across those five areas we mentioned.
[00:23:46] It's a globally recognized standard and the third party assessment framework supports the credibility of the certification.
[00:23:53] One thing we also like is that it emphasizes progress over perfection with scorecards, showing areas for improvement, while also acknowledging your business' steps in the right direction. There's also reassessment every two years to track progress. This also recognizes the complexity of packaging and it offers a number of ways for businesses to approach improving their packaging.
[00:24:17] The message here is that whether you are part of a major company or part of a startup, you don't need to reinvent the wheel. There are existing programs, certifications, and frameworks that can provide structure and direction for your business to improve its packaging.
[00:24:33] You just need to know where to look and to find what will work best for your business.
[00:24:39] Gill & Simon: so far what we know is we need to take a broader perspective of the effort required to produce the thing, and then what happens afterwards. Yes. And here we've go in a bit more detail of the the challenges of using materials effectively, how they break down. So what's up next?
[00:24:52] our next episode will be the last in our series. We'll be looking at the circular economy in more detail. We've touched on it briefly in our first two episodes, but we'll be looking at some case studies from brands that are really trying to invest in those free use refill programs we spoke about and other initiatives to make sure that the value of the packaging is maximized and avoids going into waste.
[00:25:14] Gillian Pereira: This has been part two of our series on the great packaging pile up and how we can find better ways to wrap up our goods. If you want to dig further head to our website, thebusinesspickle.com for a deep dive into our research on this topic, as well as others.
[00:25:33] Thanks for listening to The Business Pickle.