17 minute read
Interview: changing perceptions of consumer packaged goods
As Covid-19 is changing the way all of us live our lives, Elisabeth Skoda talks to James Harmer, planning & innovation strategy leader at Cambridge Design Partnership about changing perceptions of consumer packaged goods, and the effects of the virus on consumer behaviour and packaging innovation.
ES: Clearly, Covid-19 means that 2020 has not played out the way we thought it would. Before this, what were the main trends in CPG you anticipated for 2020?
JH: Like anybody that’s involved in this industry, we weren’t resting on our laurels before the crisis hit. Everyone was uniting around the sustainability challenges we face so that was the overarching trend you were seeing at conferences etc. There had been a lot of interest in returnable packaging and some interesting developments in smart packaging.
Alongside this, FMCG companies had been seeing a lot of margin compression so they were having to innovative in different ways, thinking about lightweighting, material reduction and that kind of thing. But with a global recession looming, this compression is likely to be even more of a challenge.
ES: The virus has changed how we all live our lives. How has it changed consumer behaviour or shifted priorities?
JH: One thing that’s come to the fore is that the pandemic has created lots of tension points in terms of what the right information is, what consumers should be doing and how they should be handling things. There has been consumer concern about the packaging materials themselves and what kinds of materials
THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO TETHERED CLOSURES
In the EU and other regions around the world, tethered closures will soon be mandatory for most single-use plastic bottles. For beverage producers, this is both a challenge and an opportunity.
How do you seize on that opportunity? What’s involved?
HUSKY
ON DEMAND WEBINAR
HOSTED BY PACKAGING EUROPE
ON DEMAND
Learning Objectives:
• Why switch to tethered closures: the basic requirements and opportunities • Best practices in tethered closure design • What’s involved and how to get started • Gallery of real-world tethered closure designs for inspiration
LISTEN NOW
packagingeurope.com/the-essential-guide-to-tethered-closures/
SPEAKER HOST
ON DEMAND
MICHAEL WHITE Business Development Manager for Beverage Closures Husky Injection Molding Systems
ELISABETH SKODA Editor Packaging Europe
Husky Injection Molding Systems is the world’s largest brand name supplier of injection molding equipment and services to the plastics industry. With one of the broadest product lines in the industry, Husky equipment is used to manufacture a wide range of plastic products such as bottles and caps for beverages, containers for food, medical components and consumer electronic parts. They have more than 40 service and sales offices, employ over 4,000 people worldwide and support customers in more than 100 countries. Working across print, digital and live media, Packaging Europe is the leading intelligence resource for European packaging professionals. Our mission is to connect forward thinkers across the value chain with the latest developments in packaging technology and materials, making sense of innovation in the context of the core business challenges packaging is required to meet.
could be spreading the virus. While the FDA says it remains unlikely that the virus can be transferred from one material to another, we’ve seen scientific reports to say that it remains detectable for around 24 hours on cardboard up to 72 hours for smoother surfaces such as steel or plastics so there’s an ongoing dialogue. These hygiene concerns will probably persist long after the pandemic subsides. As a result of this, we have also seen a rise in single-use packaging and increasing use of plastic bags for delivery etc, while of course companies like Starbucks paused their reusable cup scheme so it’s hard to know how long the aftershock as regards to hygiene caution around packaging will last.
On the other hand – and this surprised me – we still saw Tesco launch their Loop partnership last month. They clearly thought it was the right time to do this and it shows that the Loop experiment hasn’t lost momentum as a reinvention of how we might use packaging in the future. So against all odds, amid concerns about consumer contact, the fact that returnables haven’t fallen off the agenda is quite encouraging.
ES: Sometimes innovation can come out of adversity. Have you seen any notable innovations in packaging as a result of Covid-19?
JH: The three major requirements for packaging the must haves are always cost, convenience and performance, but we’re now also seeing a good sustainability narrative, coupled very closely with hygiene in mind which might not have been as relevant for some sectors as it is now. There is also the increased consideration of design for e-commerce; in future we will need to make sure that packaging designs work for both a bricks-and-mortar and e-commerce context.
It’s interesting to see the way that cosmetics producers, for example, have adapted the way that samples are used by changing consumer interaction with products, so there will probably be some further innovation around this, too. What’s also interesting is to look at the ways in which supermarkets will be protecting and preserving open food in supermarkets – e.g. meat and deli counters. We’ve seen packaging start to creep back in for these products, but it remains to be seen whether that takes hold and continues. Retailers are having to act in a measured way to the fact that consumers are concerned, but it’s also important that we cast our vision further and look at the possibility of further pandemics in the future: do we need to get better control of where products come from and how they are
A consideration of sustainability, functionality and efficiency
Substances such as oil, fat or water have a strong influence on the quality of packaging. They attack the substrate, can damage the printing ink or impair the filling good. A barrier is therefore essential in many cases. Until now, PE layers have generally been used as a barrier for packaging.
However, the poor recyclability of PE layers - and thus the high use of plastic - is a major drawback in terms of sustainability. They are increasingly falling into disrepute and are subject to ever more comprehensive regulation. Also, legal requirements for the recycling or disposal of such production materials represent a major challenge for many processing companies.
Solutions are increasingly being sought at all levels to avoid additional plastic waste.
The requirements for alternative barrier solutions are manifold. Thus, they must not only provide a high level of functionality and enable efficient processes, but also be sustainable, e.g. in terms of recyclability. Water-based barrier coating solutions represent a very good alternative in most cases. This includes both water-based barrier coatings for packaging converters and printers or the paper industry as well as novel aqueous thermoplastic elastomer dispersions. TPE dispersions offer a wide range of coating solutions for packaging materials and different substrates and are also used as binding systems in the paper production.
ACTEGA
ON DEMAND WEBINAR
HOSTED BY PACKAGING EUROPE
Learning Objectives:
• Find out how to replace PE layers as a barrier for packaging • Discover what requirements are placed on alternative barrier solutions • Learn more about the advantages of water-based barrier coatings
ON DEMAND
SPEAKERS
LISTEN NOW
packagingeurope.com/benefiting-from-water-based-barrier-coatings-in-packaging/
ON DEMAND
HOST
DR. LISA SCHÖNENBERG Global Portfolio Manager Paper & Board
ACTEGA Terra GmbH
WILKE FÖLLSCHER Business Development Manager YUNICO® Technology
ACTEGA DS GmbH
MARKUS LOCHER Sales Director
ACTEGA Schmid Rhyner AG
ACTEGA is a division of the internationally operating specialty chemicals group ALTANA and develops and produces coatings, sealants, printing inks and adhesives for flexible and rigid packaging as well as the graphic arts industry. These products do not only provide materials such as paper, cardboard, plastics or metal with an attractive surface, but also with functional properties such as chemical and physical resistance or barrier effects. ACTEGA’ s main customer for the products developed, produced and marketed is the packaging industry.
VICTORIA HATTERSLEY Editor
Packaging Europe
Working across print, digital and live media, Packaging Europe is the leading intelligence resource for European packaging professionals. Our mission is to connect forward thinkers across the value chain with the latest developments in packaging technology and materials, making sense of innovation in the context of the core business challenges packaging is required to meet.
handled moving forward? In this regard, smart packaging will be important in terms of monitoring and control. It’s possible that in the future, if a batch of products is infected or damaged, smart packaging will be able to identify where exactly in the supply chain that happened, how things got spoiled or damaged so the entire shipping container doesn’t have to be scrapped.
ES: How has the change in consumer habits affected demand for packaging? For example, we’ve been seeing people going out a lot less and trying to get their shopping done as quickly as possible.
JH: Of course, the biggest change in habit is that a lot of consumers are now turning to e-commerce where maybe they hadn’t before. We’re seeing baby boomers, older consumers who may have resisted e-commerce being pushed into the model and then seeing the benefits of it. All of a sudden we’re seeing businesses like Gousto, delivering meal boxes right to the door, rising exponentially in sales. I think this area will be interesting to watch in terms of packaging as there’s a huge amount more material required – refrigeration units, ice packs, fleeces to keep things the right temperature and so on. So although
based and aesthetically pleasing. But it’s interesting to see now that brands are once again pushing – indeed inflating – the germ-killing credentials on their packaging. After all, it’s quite difficult for brands to pivot packaging formats quickly but it’s much easier to simply adapt semiotic codes, graphics and so on.
ES: Finally, how do you think the two challenges of staying Covid-safe but achieving more sustainability in packaging can be combined?
JH: That’s a very difficult tension to work through. As I mentioned, during the crisis we have seen more plastics being used so there has been a reintroduction of more packaging waste into the mix, and it’s sad to see so many images of PPE that has been dumped and is finding its way into waterways. But we know that sustainability is a long-term challenge and we need to think of it like a chronic condition that is going to take some time to resolve.
On a more positive note, I’m delighted with the way that the whole world has joined together to try to deal with coronavirus as it proves that this can happen. Now, we need to leverage that will to really step change and focus on the chronic condition the environment is in.
And there’s money to be made moving to the green economy, too. Obviously there are going to be short-term problems to be faced in terms of global recession, but those who can use innovation to their advantage, hitting the sweet spot between sustainability, safety and cost-effectiveness, will be the ones who reap the rewards. These are the kinds of clients we’d
love to get our hands on! n
James Harmer
ON SECOND THOUGHTS...
REMOVING PLASTIC ALREADY IN THE OCEAN IS A DISTRACTION Yoni Shiran, Breaking the Plastic Wave Programme Director, SYSTEMIQ
Plastic’s low cost, light weight, convenience, durability, and ability to be produced in different colours and shapes have driven its proliferation. As plastic production and use have surged, so too has plastic pollution, and with it the amount of plastic in the ocean, which could already be as high as 150 million tons – with severe consequences for ecosystems, businesses and communities. An analysis by SYSTEMIQ and The Pew Charitable Trusts, Breaking the Plastic Wave project that without action, municipal solid waste plastic could double, plastic waste flowing into the ocean could triple and plastic stock in the ocean could quadruple in 20 years.
In this context, many people deeply concerned with the state of our oceans have been enthusiastic about technologies that claim to remove plastic from the middle of the ocean though sophisticated and wellengineered ‘plastic fishing’ apparatus. Some even consider these solutions a silver bullet. While incredible ingenuity has gone into these solutions, and while their development has been undoubtedly well intentioned, they are a complete distraction – and potentially a dangerous one. Given they are attracting hundreds of millions of dollars of investment, the focus needs be on investing into real solutions that focus on preventing plastic from entering the ocean in the first place, including new reuse/refill models, better plastic substitutes, new recycling facilities, and the significant expansion of collection infrastructure.
Removing plastic from the ocean is a distraction for a few simple reasons. First, the economics don’t work. It is unconceivable that removing a ton of plastic from the ocean is more cost effective than preventing it from entering the ocean in the first place. It has been estimated that removing a meaningful volume of plastic from the ocean could cost €708 billion, or ~1% of the world’s GDP .
Second, finding plastic in the ocean is like finding a needle in a haystack. In fact, one cannot think of a smaller needle (think microplastics) or a larger haystack (the ocean’s volume is 1,350,000,000,000,000,000,000 litres, an unimaginable amount). Even if plastics concentrate in some parts of the ocean, the technical constraints are insurmountable, especially when compared to the well-known solutions that could prevent plastic from flowing into the ocean in the first place (and the ‘plastic island’ myth has already been debunked, with scientists now estimating that 97% of the plastic in the ocean is not floating in ‘plastic islands’). To make matters worse, plastic in the ocean degrades into smaller particles called microplastics (particles between 1 micrometre and 5 mm in size) or even nanoplastics (particles smaller than 1 micrometre) – exacerbating the challenge of finding and removing them at scale.
Last, even if somehow it were possible to find these particles, by the time plastic particles reach the middle of the ocean where they would be collected, these particles could have already propagated much damage to fish and natural ecosystems, potentially killing several animals along the way. A large proportion of life in the ocean is within the first 50 km from the coast – by the time plastic would have been collected from the middle of the ocean, it may have been too late.
Many have used the ‘flooded house’ metaphor to make a similar argument. In essence, if your house is flooding, you must turn off the tap before you start mopping the floor. Attempting to remove plastic from the ocean while 14 million tonnes of plastic are still pouring into our ocean every year is analogous to mopping the floor – and dangerously so, given the profound negative impact of plastic pollution, including altering habitats, harming wildlife, and damaging ecosystem function and services. Sadly, for the plastic already in the ocean it is ‘game over’, and we must focus all our resources on preventing more plastic from pouring in.
River trap technologies that capture plastic flowing in the river may be more effective than ocean clean-up initiatives. But these too should be implemented carefully to ensure that rivers don’t become our waste management systems. Rivers are, after all, as vulnerable an eco-system as the ocean, if not more so.
We must therefore focus on the root cause of plastic pollution in the ocean, not the symptom. Fortunately, we have today 80% of the solutions needed to address plastic pollution – including reducing plastic consumption, substituting plastic with other materials, designing for recycling, scaling up collection and recycling infrastructure, among others. Fixing our plastic system will by no means be easy, but it is possible. Once we have done that, we can turn to removing plastic from the ocean – but until then, the world needs to focus all its efforts on prevention. n
BOTTLE-TO-BOTTLE, TRAY-TO-TRAY - CLOSED LOOP
SUKANO
ON DEMAND WEBINAR
HOSTED BY PACKAGING EUROPE
Fundamental redesign and innovation technology for PET packaging recycling
There is momentum behind initiatives to drive circularity. However, the current trajectory is unlikely to be sufficient. We urge for radical actions in redesign through innovation in polyester plastic packaging to replace less sustainable packaging into polyester monomaterial alternatives to the extent that the problem demands.
Sukano will showcase technology to support these initiatives to replace end applications made from non-recyclable or less sustainable materials and compositions into applications made from PET through an innovative and dedicated RPET Masterbatch Portfolio.
Learning Objectives:
• Get a common understanding of the current RPET market situation • Find out how to be part of the solution through collaboration and innovation that contributes towards circular economy goals • Explore the latest Sukano innovations to learn how they radically improve economics and recyclability of your products • Accelerate the changes in the packaging plastic market needed to deliver environmental impact benefits to the extent and with the urgency needed
ON DEMAND
SPEAKERS
LISTEN NOW
packagingeurope.com/bottle-to-bottle-tray-to-tray-closed-loop/
ON DEMAND
HOST
MICHAEL KIRCH Global Head of R&D Sukano
ALESSANDRA FUNCIA Head of Sales & Marketing Sukano
Sukano is a world leader in the development and production of additive and colour masterbatches and compounds for polyester, biobased, biodegradable and specialty resins. Headquartered in Switzerland, the company is a familyowned business with production facilities in Europe, the Americas, and Asia Pacific. Providing unparalleled service, know-how, and quality to its customers worldwide, Sukano is the global partner of choice for plastic converters and brand owners to develop their innovative products and highly specialized solutions. For more information, www.sukano.com
ELISABETH SKODA Editor
Packaging Europe
Working across print, digital and live media, Packaging Europe is the leading intelligence resource for European packaging professionals. Our mission is to connect forward thinkers across the value chain with the latest developments in packaging technology and materials, making sense of innovation in the context of the core business challenges packaging is required to meet.
