Excess Packaging

PAY FOR THE PRODUCT, NOT FOR THE PACKAGING

Over packaging of consumer goods can primarily be seen in single serving food products. Single-serve and miniaturized packaging is hot and getting hotter, for food and beverage as well as health and beauty products. Consumer lifestyles are driving the trend toward smaller packs, with numerous factors playing a role. For food and drinks, issues like convenience, dietary awareness, freshness and reducing food waste are core drivers.

On the other hand, single serving consumer goods that come under toiletries could be tagged as the culprits. Not to forget many accessories for computers and phones (for example- pen drives, memory cards, etc) where the packaging is almost 5 times the size of the actual product.

Many supermarkets sell fresh fruits and vegetables that are singularly wrapped in a thin film of plastic. Sometimes along with a Styrofoam plate. This plastic is usually not recycled because of its light weight. When asked, the suppliers say that the extra layer of plastic increases the life of the organic product from about a week to 10 days. This in turn controls the quality of the product and delivers it fresh to the consumer. Also, it helps in controlling food waste. Since, this extra packaging has it’s own benefits, we need to find a way around it. This can be done by cutting out the single packaging. For transportation and stocking, the suppliers can vacuum wrap a huge quantity in better plastic. After the produce reaches the supermarket, the consumers can pick fresh produce without the outer packaging.

E-COMMERCE

Companies and private sellers that deliver product through the mail often over-package, putting a pre-boxed item in a second box, and sometimes even a third one. This practice, also called as the “Russian doll” approach, is exceedingly wasteful. The suppliers do this to ensure safe transportation of the product. The way out of this is to use sustainable packing materials, rather than the traditional Styrofoam. There are numerous sustainable options, including packing materials made from corn starch or sorghum, which can be composted.

A Pretty Picture Sells a Thousand and One Words

        IMPACT OF ATTRACTIVE PACKAGING

Every year, 95 percent of new products fail. The reason is simple and logical : Most customers don't have the time or energy to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of the products in their shopping carts, so more often than not, packaging is the deciding factor. Packaging is powerful because it tells consumers why your product and brand are different. Great packaging is significant because it can have a direct impact on sales and a company's overall appeal. Poor packaging can have an even more dramatic effect. 

Australia recently instituted a plain packaging law for cigarettes. The government's removal of packaging branding rights aimed to discourage young people from smoking. Not only can Marlboro not use its logo, but it also can't use its typeface. The packages, covered with health warnings and graphic images that deter smoking, resulted in the biggest smoking decline Australia has seen in 20 years.

Customer Psychology

•  Know your demographic.Focus on the target audience. Know what will catch their eye. Don't be afraid to go bold.
• Make cheap packaging look chic and personalized. Good packaging doesn't have to be expensive.
• Make the package part of the experience. Part of the reason it's so fun to unbox a new Apple product is that its packaging reflects the sleek, user-friendly experience of the product inside.
• Let the product speak. If you have a quality product, let it speak for itself. Don’t feel the need to surround it with shiny, obnoxious wrappings if it doesn’t need it. Keep it transparent.
• Be compact. If you can make something work just as well smaller, try it. The more compact something is, the easier it is to store and transport.
• Consider eco-friendly options. Packaging that's recyclable or reusable is always a reason for a consumer to choose your brand over your competitor's. In fact, 52 percent of people around the world make purchase decisions partially due to packaging that shows a brand making a positive social and environmental impact.Puma has made great strides with its eco-friendly packaging that doubles as a reusable walking billboard for its brand. There are plenty of creative ways to go easy on the earth and differentiate your brand in the process.
  
  

Where to intervene?

Next we need where to intervene in the process of packaging. For that a little background for the types of packaging will be useful.

Primary Packaging

Packaging that contains the finished or final products, also called retail or consumer packaging. This packaging is used to contain, preserve, protect and inform the end user. It is the total packaging that the end-user will ultimately dispose of via reuse, recycling, landfill or other disposal routes. Primary packaging should include all packaging up to the point of sale,but does not include carrier bags (single use and bags for life) and delivery boxes.

Secondary packaging 

Packaging additional to the primary packaging and that is used for protection and collation of individual units during storage, transport and distribution. They can be used in some sectors to display primary packs on shelf. Sometimes called grouped or display packaging. This category also includes packaging purposely made to display multiple product units for sale, in order to speed restocking from storeroom to shelf. Also know as retail-ready packaging (RRP), shelf-ready packaging (SRP) or counter-top display units (CDUs).

Tertiary packaging

Outer packaging, including pallets, slip sheets, stretch wrap, strapping any labels, used for the shipment and distribution of goods. This packaging is also referred to as transport or transit packaging and is rarely seen by the final consumer. The final destination will often deal with this via its own internal reuse or recycle routes. 

Hence, its very clear that the maximum number of packages are involved in primary packaging where the product is finally reaching the end consumer. This, in turn, is creating the maximum waste. The only way to make a massive impact is to cut this out. We need to figure out How? 

Desk Research I

Scope of Problem

SCOPE OF PROBLEM

Packaging plays an innate and important role in the lives of almost every human on earth. All materials used for packaging good are derived from natural resources such as oil, metal ores, sand, and trees, which are processed and converted into plastic, aluminum, metal, glass, wood and paper for both our health and convenience. Wherever there is a packaged product, there is packaging waste. Once the products contained within packages are consumed, the packages themselves lose their protective, containment or transportation function, and are often discarded as packaging waste and is headed towards a future as reused or recycled packaging materials, or, in most cases, as landfill or incinerator fodder. No debate exists as to whether there are negative consequences to the environment caused by wastes from discarded packaging from consumer products. Packaging for consumer products is created by human society to cater to its own needs. 

In the book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, authors McDonough and Braungart note that “More than 90 percent of materials extracted to make durable goods in the US become waste almost immediately”. Problems arising from waste—landfill leachate and methane emissions, destructive materials sourcing, production, and transportation, and marine debris—has taken a toll on our environment.The more developed the society, the more packaging is manufactured and consequently disposed off. The solutions to reduction of packaging wastes, therefore, must burden human society and the companies in industrialized nation-states that manufacture most consumer products and accompanying packaging materials. 

Do we really need to pack everything?

Initial Mind Map

Overview

Very often we don't realize the importance of packaging. Almost everything we buy today is packaged in some way or the other. Mostly plastic. We might end up buying something which was not even on the list because of its captivating and appealing packaging; a pretty picture sells a million items.
What we don't know is that almost 60% of the household waste that goes in to the bin is packaging waste. Out of which maybe half of it is recycled and the rest of it ends up in landfills, in turn harming the environment on a very high scale. So how about trying to reduce the excess packaging there is and make packaging more sustainable, if avoiding it is not possible.  

Mentors

Amaranta Nehru

Kuntal De