jane bickerstaffe From the green side...
Every issue, Jane Bickerstaffe of INCPEN, the Industry Council for Packaging and the Environment, gives her environmental point of view from within the industry
IT’S TIME TO STOP APOLOGISING FOR PACKAGING! The type of packaging used to protect goods, the material used and the unit sizes, are not random or arbitrary decisions. If you work in the agricultural, manufacturing, wholesaling or retailing sectors you are only too well aware of the vital role that packaging performs to ensure your valuable products generate the income you need to run your business. If half of it is damaged, broken or soiled, consumers will simply not buy it and (unless you are making stupendous profits on the other half!) your business will go bust. So why, when criticised by
politicians or the media for perceived ‘excessive packaging’ do we meekly promise to reduce it, with our heads hung down in shame?
NEW RESEARCH INCPEN’s latest research sets out the reasons for choosing the packaging for 12 frequently purchased products, with no apologies. Admittedly this new report, called
‘Why Products are Packaged the Way They Are’, is unlikely to top the best seller lists, but we don’t apologise for that either. Instead we are aiming to provide some factual information to enhance consumer understanding of what we do. Every year we supply many thousands of copies of studies into packaging and leaflets giving facts on packaging regulations and recycling to local authorities and schools. In the last 6 months alone, we have distributed over 12,000 copies of our leaflet PackFacts, designed to fit in your pocket and help you answer statistical questions about packaging. As we answer hundreds of media enquiries every year, this new study will be one more tool in our armoury – and we urge others involved in supplying packaging, or packaged goods, to add it to theirs, too. Most non-industry people have
never considered the reasons why goods are packaged in a particular way, or the innovative technology behind the choices. And most of them don’t really have strong feelings about it, anyway. But for the vocal minority that express concern about what they perceive to be the unnecessary use of resources in packaging, or worry that they cannot put all of their used packaging into a
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recycling bin, this report could provide a few answers.
THE 12 FREQUENTLY PURCHASED PRODUCTS The 12 products are breakfast cereal; cat food; coffee; crisps; household cleaners (trigger spray); meat; milk; salad; skincare products; soup; toothpaste; yoghurt. Each need protection from a different combination of external and internal factors such as dirt, light, moisture, oxygen, bacterial growth, temperature and physical damage. The amazing and ongoing technological innovation that has gone into getting such widely assorted items to us safely is completely taken for granted. I mean, stop and consider for a
moment the development of material half the thickness of a human hair to make a crisp bag which ensures crisps stay fresh, crisp and uncrushed. Or the safety and dispensing properties of the bottle for the potentially
“Stop and consider for a moment the development of material half the thickness of a human hair to make a crisp bag which ensures crisps stay fresh, crisp and uncrushed. Or the safety and dispensing properties of the bottle for the potentially hazardous chemicals in household cleaners”
hazardous chemicals in household cleaners. This report answers a number of commonly
heard questions – such as why breakfast cereals are not filled to the top of the box – and should help us gain recognition for packaging as the environmentally-responsible, waste-avoiding stuff that it is.
DID YOU KNOW? The average household in the UK buys over 4,000 items of food and other products every year. In the UK as a whole, 25 million households buy over 100 billion items every year. Over 75% of those purchases are grocery products – mainly food and drink but also household detergents, paper products, cosmetics, toiletries, nappies and pet food. A typical UK supermarket today carries well
over 50,000 product lines compared with only 2,000 in the 1960s. These products have to survive the journey from farm or factory – irrespective of which part of the world that is in - and reach the consumer undamaged, unspoilt and fit for purpose. Also, packaging for food and drink
accounts for 87% by weight of all sales packaging.
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