Sustainable Packaging: The (Green) Proof Is in the Package
Marketers have long recognized the power of packaging to communicate a multitude of brand values. But in the era of the socially conscious consumer, one value in particular — sustainability — tends to dominate the conversation.
Today’s consumers are increasingly likely to support businesses with provable sustainability claims, including those surrounding a brand’s packaging. In a survey conducted earlier this year by e-commerce solutions provider Blue Yonder, 86% of consumers said they are willing to delay at-home deliveries for the sake of improving sustainability, and 64% said they are willing to spend more on sustainable packaging, with 44% willing to spend up to 5% more.
Mr. Clean, Meet Mr. Plastic
We recently spoke with Procter & Gamble's John Layman and Tracey Long about the company’s licensing partnership with PureCycle Technologies to deploy purified recycled polypropylene and its hopes that others will adopt the technology to reduce virgin plastic use and cut carbon emissions. Read the Q&A.
Within the CPG industry, consumers are demanding sustainable packaging most in categories that feature repeatable products, such as beauty, personal care, and food and beverages, according to Nisha Palvia, principal of operations and performance at The Kearney Institute.
“Typically, my clients are most interested in knowing what package design changes can impact CO2 emissions, energy reduction and reduction in overall water usage,” says Palvia, who consults with package design experts at Kearney’s PERLab studios in Chicago, Stuttgart and Shanghai.
Still, marketers should be careful about the claims they make regarding sustainable packaging. Unlike the vast regulations imposed on nutritional labels by the Food and Drug Administration, there are no federal laws that govern sustainability claims, which opens the door for unprovable claims and misinterpretation. For example, the term “compostable” can mean different things to consumers in different states, says Paul Nowak, executive director of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC), a membership-based organization run by the non-profit environmental firm GreenBlue.
“For the most part, consumers are very interested in transparency in logos and labels,” says Nowak. “They wanted to know what you’re saying is true.”
Getting the Message Out
If there is a natural platform for brands to deliver messages on sustainable packaging, it’s the package itself. Since 2012, SPC has provided guidance to members on the recyclability of packaging materials through its How2Recycle program, whose labels are now used on packages by over 2,600 brands to help educate consumers on recycling techniques.
Major marketers like Procter & Gamble often participate in the program. P&G deploys How2Recyle labels on more than 20 brands, according to the company, while devoting space on the package to advance its sustainability message. As an example, Herbal Essences has added on-pack communication about using recycled plastic when making bio:renew bottles, which feature the claim “1 Ton plastic waste recycled in process of making 2 tons of bottles.”
At the same time, sustainable packaging goals are often advanced through the supply chain in ways that consumers may not see. Many CPG companies have partnerships with material recycling facilities to minimize contamination and waste in reusable packaging processes.
But even some of these closed-loop partnerships now include a direct link to the customer. Earlier this year, circular packaging firm Loop rolled out the first in-store locations for its TerraCycle reuse platform at major retail chains worldwide, including Kroger in the U.S. and Tesco in the U.K. Participating manufacturers, including Nestle, feature products with reusable packaging in a designated Loop section of the store — which serves as the collection site for shoppers to return the packaging when the contents are consumed.
While food and beverage companies are among the most frequent subscribers to the TerraCycle program, beauty brands — which increasingly more sustainable materials like aluminum in their packaging — have also begun to make more investments in packaging that is reusable or refillable.
“It’s something we’re seeing with prestige brands at very high price points, where premium and reusable packaging is something that drives that value to the consumer,” Palvia explains. “We are also seeing it with fragrances quite a bit now.”
Defining ‘Sustainable’ Packaging
There is currently no standard definition of sustainable packaging, in part because sustainability is such a broad term. SPC provides an overview of the goals that companies are adopting in the space, many of which are related to packaging material selection and sourcing. The most common include the use of post-consumer and/or post-industrial recycled materials, as well as plant-based materials, to replace conventional virgin feedstocks.
The group also publishes a list of eight criteria with various parameters to help determine which packaging efforts may be considered sustainable. One of those criteria — “Optimizes the use of renewable or recycled source materials” — includes the following explanation:
“Many bio-based and renewable materials are suitable for recovery through either biological or technical means. Materials from non-renewable resources should be recycled to the highest degree possible. Since the value of these materials cannot be recovered through natural processes and may be persistent in the environment, they require a high degree of stewardship throughout their life cycle to ensure that they are collected, recovered and reused.”
Of course, the whole idea of sustainable packaging is not new. In the last several years, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have introduced a variety of smaller snack packages, bottles and can sizes — not only for dietary considerations, but also to contribute less harmful waste to the environment. And bottle recycling initiatives like bottle bills deposit programs in a handful of U.S. states date back to 1986.
Still, Nowak says it is only in the last few years that the world’s largest CPG companies have gotten serious about investing in R&D and strategies that promote sustainability throughout the life cycle of packaging.
“For many years, sustainable packaging was a trend or flavor of the month,” he says. “Over the last 10 years, and specifically the last three years, that has changed dramatically. Part of that is due to the influence of climate change and where packaging and waste fit into that conversation. Consumer awareness has also grown to the point where something can instantly be recognized as not, quote unquote, sustainable.”
New Sources of Recyclable Materials
A major turning point in this evolution came in 2016 when Walmart published its open-source forum, known as the Sustainable Packaging Playbook. “Open sourcing best practices and innovation allows for rapid adoption and allows others to create even better solutions from across the supply chain,” says Nowak. “Some of this work will take years. An apparel company can’t turn on a dime and switch all of its T-shirt packages from plastic to paper.”
For the past 12 years, P&G has been seeking a large-scale solution for purifying recycled polypropylene, a thermoplastic polymer that is commonly used in plastic bottles and containers for packaging food and beverages, personal care items and other consumer products.
Now, thanks to a licensing agreement with PureCycle Technologies, P&G hopes to make its VersoVita circular polymer purification process a household name.
“Finding sources of high-quality recycled polypropylene has been a challenge, so we said let’s sit down and really try to solve how we can improve the quality,” explains John Layman, senior director of corporate R&D at P&G. “It was about a two-year journey to go from a problem statement to ‘Hey, we think we can pull this off.’ And then since that time, it’s been about taking the technology, raising funding and commercializing it.”
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Eva NYC uses 100% recyclable aluminum packaging and says it is the first haircare brand to offer a recycling tools program with Loop TerraCycle. “We are continuously looking to improve and deliver even more sustainable offerings to our customers,” said Jane Moran, brand president at Eva NYC.
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New Laws & Educating Consumers
Today’s companies are under growing pressure to adopt sustainable packaging practices from the government. Several states have begun to introduce bills that would apply Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws to packaging. EPR encourages manufacturers to design environmentally friendly products by holding producers (which may include brands, licensees and importers/distributors) responsible for the costs of managing their products at end of life.
Earlier this year, California passed one of the nation’s strictest laws on packaging materials, mandating significantly reduced use of plastic packaging for products sold, distributed or imported into the state. Maine, Oregon and Colorado have similar laws, and an additional 19 states are considering new EPR packaging legislation. “Unfortunately we’re going to create a patchwork of laws for a while, which is going to be difficult for the brands to navigate,” says Nowak.
There is no doubt that consumers are becoming more knowledgeable about packaging materials and manufacturing processes that are harmful to the environment. Still, the lack of standards makes sustainable packaging claims like “compostable” ambiguous and difficult to prove. Says Nowak: “Compostability essentially means, can I put it in my garden? But does that mean I can put it in a special bin in certain municipalities that have industrial composting capabilities next to their waste? None of that's defined yet in our country.”
“The question becomes, whose job is it to educate consumers?” he says. “The government is not going to do it, because we don’t really have standards or a definition of sustainability. I would argue every brand and every retailer should take a percent of their budgets for new launches and take ownership of starting to educate consumers.”
