ackaging is undeniably necessary to protect goods from damage throughout the supply chain, from leaving a manufacturer to arriving undamaged in a consumer’s home.
Despite supplying a necessary service, the industry has long faced criticism for the impact of its products on the environment and that has perhaps been exacerbated by industry’s unwillingness to engage in public debate.
However, this general reluctance to talk about or admit any culpability for the effects of the packaging it produces has changed over the past year.
As public concern about environmental damage, climate change and the need for sustainability has intensified, so the packaging industry is waking up to the need to become sustainable.
This year will see the industry embracing sustainability and sustainable business practices.
The Packaging Council’s chief executive Gavin Williams agrees.
“When your talking about issues confronting the packaging industry it is probably the number one issue.
“It has risen significantly on the agenda of the packaging industry over the last year or so.”
“There really has been a seachange. One of the reasons is the packaging industry is being asked this question by its customers. Its customers are saying ‘give us sustainable packaging’.”
Until recently, recycling was the focus of a sustainable packaging industry, but recycling alone does not constitute sustainable business practice.
The onus is very much on consumers, and even when companies recycle materials in-house and during manufacture this is only one facet of being truly sustainable.
A more holistic approach should be taken, and the use of energy and resources must be a prime consideration, thinks Williams.
“We talk about sustainability as compared with the previous emphasis on recycling issues when the emphasis was largely, but not exclusively, on recycling. Now, although the emphasis on recycling rates will certainly continue, what about water usage? What about energy usage?”
“The debate has widened significantly,” he affirmed.
Action being taken by overseas retailers is part of the reason for this.
Walmart in the US, and Tesco, Sainsbury’s and M&S in the UK have all imposed packaging criteria on the manufacturer’s that supply them.
The manufacturers in turn have required certain things of the packaging industries in those countries.
Williams believes that the big Australian retailers will probably impose packaging mandates at some point.
“Retailers taking this issue seriously would galvanise the whole retail supply chain, because they are so important,” said Williams.
One downside of this is that each retailer would implement a different set of criteria and manufacturers would end up trying to meet different retailers’ mandates in different ways, he pointed out.
The packaging industry has the expertise to deliver sustainable packaging successfully and take the lead on this issue by entering into honest and open dialogue.
However, issues of sustainability are very different in Australia, as compared with the US and Europe.
For example, saving water in producing packaging must surely be a prime consideration in the Australian packaging industry becoming sustainable.
This is less of an issue in Europe, said Williams, where the focus is on minimising packaging at every opportunity, partly as a result of consumer pressure.
Reducing the weight of packaging is an important part of the Australian approach, and will continue but, however great the gains, it is not enough on its own.
Support to succeed
Williams believes the industry will get behind sustainability and sustainable business practices during 2008 in a way not seen to date.
“The whole issue of climate change and the greenhouse effect has seeped into the public consciousness in a way that certainly wasn’t there two years ago and that is driving industry. And industry is opening its eyes to what people are doing overseas.”
“Put another way, this issue is not a trendy fad, it is here to stay.
“The demands on industry to provide answers to [these] things will be with us for the foreseeable future.”
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