Desjardin Blog - EN

When food producers overlook market holes, new players can enter the market to serve an under-served group. Consumers have a growing interest in healthy and safe foods, so now more than ever before many care about packaging. Multiple studies show a significant number of grocery shoppers have specific expectations about packaging when it comes to healthiness and safety.

Sustainable packaging materials, such as metal, are becoming important to broader supply chain sustainability. At the same time, every link in a supply chain should be focused on sustainable solutions that make logistics more economically efficient and eco-friendly. Paying attention to improving Service Parts Logistics (SPL), which involves ordering replacement parts, is a crucial key for supply chains to evolve toward sustainability.

Evidence is growing among market researchers there's a willingness for consumers to pay more for better packaging. In a recent survey among Lebanese consumers published by Emerald Insight, 73 percent of respondents said they were willing to pay more for higher-quality packaging. This survey reflected individuals from backgrounds in higher education and higher income.

Three key barriers exist that limit the development of sustainable packaging. Those barriers are cost/benefit ambiguity, additional costs, and trade-offs between package requirements. These barriers partly relate to company size. Here's a look at how a focus on environmental issues will help lead businesses toward sustainable packaging solutions.

Recycling is a process that is used in countless industries and is steadily being used more commonly in goods produced today. Recycling is the process of turning waste into usable material. In the packaging industry material is often reused and recycled, which can substantially cut down on the amount of new material and energy that needs to be used to produce more packaging. Three of the most common materials used in the packaging industry are plastic, tin, and aluminium. Studies have shown that recycling aluminum uses 95% less energy than needed to produce new material and recycling plastic saves 76% of the energy [1,2]. This difference is caused by a variety of reasons, like the energy cost to transport, sort, and recycle each product.

Optimizing a supply chain for sustainability is an efficient way for companies to reduce their environmental footprint while increasing long term profits. By 2025 almost two billion people are expected to become global consumers, a 75 percent increase over 2010. This will require increased transport within supply chains, ultimately causing more greenhouse gas production. Sustainable supply chains focus on improving efficiency throughout the entire process, with a strong focus on reducing waste/CO2 production and improving communication. These waste products directly contribute to global warming, which is a worldwide issue leading to a host of further problems. In the metal packaging world a few key components that are focused to improve sustainability are overall production efficiency, location raw materials are sourced from, transportation, and sales. Companies that focus on sustainably optimizing these aspects of their supply chain can expect to see a host of effects relating to their company cost, product cost, and environmental impact.

Sustainable supply-chain optimization is the process of ensuring that all aspects of the supply chain, from manufacturing to sales, are being done in the most optimal and energy efficient way [1]. This is an integral part of any manufacturing company and is especially true in the metal packaging industry. In the past metal packaging has been seen as an energy intensive and non-emissions friendly process, but this is no longer true. With an optimized supply chain and higher rates of recycling metal packaging is actually a more carbon emission friendly process than plastic packaging. A sustainably optimized supply chain produces 1.87 tonnes of CO2-e per tonne of aluminium and 2.2 tonnes of CO2-e per tonne of plastic produced [2,3]. This is an easy way for companies looking to reduce their carbon footprint to make a change. For a supply chain to be sustainably optimized there are a few areas that need to be reviewed: overall production efficiency, the metal packaging supplier, transportation, and sales.

Energy is used in every process on earth, from moving an arm to building a skyscraper. The energy for these processes comes from different sources, like from eating food for processes in the human body and burning fossil fuels to power construction. In addition to processes requiring different types of energy, they also require different amounts.

The opinions of consumers in the United States and Europe will have a large effect on shaping the future of food packaging. In the U.S. over 50% of people say that one of the most important factors for packaging is convenience. Additionally, over 90% of people believe that healthy eating habits are important to having a long life, 70% of people try to eat healthy every meal, and 60% of people realize when they aren’t eating healthy and would like to improve [1]. This increased awareness of how food and health are related is a big change from the fast food obsessed USA of the past. These trends will undoubtedly influence food packaging as consumers continue to look for convenient and healthy food options.