New Ways to Green Your Food and Beverage Packaging

In contrast to conventional stand-up pouches, which are made using film laminates that contain multiple plastics, this leading brand of nutrition bars' pre-made pouches are made from non-laminated HDPE. Cincinnati-based Ampac (www.ampaconline.com) supplies the package, which it calls the No. 2 Pouch.

According to Ampac, the pouch provides a high moisture barrier and "excellent" puncture resistance while supporting higher-end graphics and costing less than laminated stand-up pouches. Food applications include not only multipacks but also dry products like seeds, sugars, cereals and pet food.

The resealable pouch holds 30 "snack-size" bars, with a net weight of 21.3 oz. The recycling symbol appears on the back of the pouch with text encouraging consumers to recycle or repurpose the package. The pouch's bottom gusset provides additional recycling information.

Ampac reports that the No. 2 Pouch is approved by Trex Co. (www.trex.com), Winchester, Va., which converts 70 percent of the plastic bags collected in the U.S. into decking and railing products.

"There are some ways to recycle [mixed-material films], but there really isn't an infrastructure" to do so, says Sal Pellingra, Ampac's director of innovation. However, "there is an infrastructure around grocery sacks … That's why we worked with Trex right from the start."

Pellingra adds, "There's so much noise around the other green options. With [corn-based biopolymer] there's the potential to compete with food products, and also does it really compost the way it should?" In contrast, the new pouch "is very simple. Here is a package that's recyclable — it's one material rather than two materials."

Ampac currently is distribution-testing a similar product, the recyclable No. 4 Pouch, which is made from low-density polyethylene (LDPE).

Sustainability plus functionality
U.K. grocer Waitrose took a different tack to packaging reduction when it redesigned the meat packs sold under its Essential Waitrose private label.

The company switched from a standard meat tray to what it calls the Snip and Slide pack, which is a flow-wrapped package made of oriented polyester film. The first two products in the new package were fresh diced beef and minced beef. According to Waitrose, the switch will reduce post-consumer waste by 90 tonnes per year.

Additional environmental benefits include less energy required to produce each package and more efficient shipping because the pouches take up less space on trucks. The latter promises to reduce both fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions.

In another project, Waitrose reduced the thickness of bags used for salads, reducing package weight by 14.3 percent. The retailer also cut its smoked-salmon packaging by 50 percent. And by eliminating labels on its private-label egg cartons, the company estimates it will save 35 tonnes of packaging annually.

A central issue in Waitrose's efforts — as all food-packaging redesigns — is to maintain or improve product protection and in so doing reduce food waste.

"The smallest package is not necessarily always the most sustainable," says Ron Cotterman, executive director of sustainability for Sealed Air Corp. (www.sealedair.com), Duncan, S.C. "The packaging has to provide a function.

"The trend now in the industry is not to look at packaging in isolation," he says, but rather in the context of the product. "One packaging type may not be optimal for a certain product and its distribution channel, but it may be perfect for another. It's not just about the packaging, it's about how the packaging gets used. It's not about what the packaging is, it's what the packaging does."

As an example, Sealed Air's Cryovac food packaging unit worked with a meat processor to develop a ham package that would prevent product damage during distribution; the shank bone was causing package failures. "In that case, adding more packaging but adding it where the failure was occurring reduced damage across the whole supply chain," Cotterman says, citing a 73 percent reduction in package failures for the hams.

The true success, though, was the reduction of food waste. For a product like a packaged ham, if damage "occurs early in the distribution chain, you might be able to recover that product. But if it occurs late, like in a retail case, all the energy that's been invested in that food product has been wasted. And that's when your investment has been highest," Cotterman explains.

The goal, he adds, should be to recognize that packaging optimized for product protection and preservation throughout the supply chain "can actually be quite a powerful asset when you're trying to promote sustainability."