Packaging deserves a better reputation
establishment of a Packaging Standards Council to deal with public
concerns over waste. In an interview with
FoodProductionDaily.com, the Industry Council for Packaging
and the Environment (Incpen), whose members include raw material
suppliers, packaging manufacturers and manufacturers and retailers
of packaged goods, claims that perceptions of the role packaging
plays in waste urgently need to be addressed.
"We think that there is more than enough legislation governing waste management, and packaging is continually being improved," said director Jane Bickerstaffe. "But if you ask the public, they will always tell you that there is more packaging than we need."The problem is that most of them don't realise the role that packaging plays. What would be more useful, what we would like to see, is a body responsive to these consumer concerns."
According to Bickerstaffe, there is a real knowledge gap between the packaging industry and the public that uses its products. Bickerstaffe would like any body that is set up to bridge this gap through education.
"The problem is the perception of the role of packaging," she said. "People think it is just waste. As an industry, we need a mechanism explaining to the public the role of packaging. It is like lorries - it is a means of getting the product to homes."
In addition, Bickerstaffe believes that the intense focus on packaging draws attention away from bigger causes of waste and pollution. In a Financial Times article, Incpen cited research showing that swapping a four-wheel drive car for a more fuel-efficient family saloon would, in one year, save the same amount of energy as recycling a family's bottles for 400 years.
The council also argues that the increase in the number of packaged items over the past 20 years has also been offset by packaging becoming lighter. As a result, it is the only element of the municipal waste stream that has not increased by weight or volume in the past 20 years. "Packaging is not a waste problem but part of the solution," said the council. "Packaging protects at least 10 times its own weight of goods and prevents them from being wasted."
Bickerstaffe's comments reflect a general consensus in the European packaging industry that it has an undeserved reputation when it comes to waste. A survey published earlier this year suggested that packaging companies across Europe were taking the EU's packaging and packaging waste directive's essential requirements seriously.
The independent survey of European Organisation for Packaging and the Environment (Europen) members showed that 65 per cent of those questioned already use the EN 13428 source reduction standard, developed by the European standards organisation CEN, to show that they are complying with the directive. A further 12 per cent have internal procedures to demonstrate compliance. Of the remaining companies that have no procedure in place yet, all but one are currently based outside the EU in Accession States where compliance is not yet required.
