Page 14 - Packaging News Mar-Apr 2020

14 INDUSTRY INSIGHT | www.packagingnews.com.au | March-April 2020
Collaboration is key to sustainability
Every link in the packaging supply chain has been coming under increasing pressure to become more sustainable and environmentally friendly. But the industry has heretofore been sluggish to innovate and implement the level of change that consumers and governments are increasingly demanding.
are developing flexible paper-based pack- aging with water-based coatings that can act as barriers for vapour, oxygen, and oil, and can therefore replace plastic/alumin- ium laminate packages, among other types of laminates,” the report says. “Others are working on creating lighter and stronger packaging board that offers lower carbon footprint while providing sufficient bar- rier properties. For example, one producer is including micro-fibrillated cellulose in its paper board to create lighter, stron- ger packaging board that also uses less virgin material.”
Turning to plastic film producers, the report points out that they are developing mono-material packaging solutions that are fully recyclable and can replace today’s multi-material flexible plastic packaging that cannot be recycled with current tech- nology. “There is also substantial work underway to develop more food-safe-grade plastic films incorporating recycled con- tent,” the report says. “This development will increase the use of recycled materials in the large quantities of flexible packaging that are used today for food.”
STRATEGIES FOR CONVERTERS TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE PACKAGING
There are no one-size-fits-all solutions for packaging converters to provide more sus- tainable packaging to their FMCG and retailer customers, the report says.
“There are complexities and trade-offs to consider if they are to navigate through these sustainability challenges in order to find the most effective route to growing and preserving value with application innova- tions,” the report says. “There are complex- ities and trade-offs to consider if they are to navigate through these sustainability chal- lenges in order to find the most effective route to growing and preserving value with application innovations.”
The report outlines a three-part approach to help packaging converters to identify opportunities for greater sustainability.
AREPORT from McKinsey & Company, The Drive Toward Sustainability in Packaging – Beyond the Quick Wins, examines present sustainability efforts and looks forward to changes and inno- vation that would help the packaging industry meet sustainability demands.
One such change the report points to is an increase in collaboration between fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies and retailers and packaging converters.
“Traditionally, packaging con- verters have played the role of the compliant supplier to their larger and more powerful brand-own- ing customers,” the report says. “However, as FMCG companies and retailers discover the need to move from an arm’s length relationship with suppliers to more of a partnership and collaborative approach, new opportunities could emerge for packaging converters – particu- larly for agile converters that are able to quickly expand their innovation capabilities.”
MAJOR SCALE-UP NEEDED
Packaging converters will need to invest in a major scale- up of their innovation capac- ity, according to the report. This innovation will have to go beyond the current trend of light-weighting, improving energy efficiency, and decreasing waste.
“This inevitably implies a gap between the need to support the sustainable packag- ing aspirations of the FMCG companies and retailers, and the range of development initiatives being undertaken by the packag- ing converters,” the report says.
“Examples of this gap include the fact that innovative application solutions that offer higher recyclability today are far from being as cost – and as barrier-efficient as incum- bent solutions. Successful sustainability innovations will need to be at a neutral or
affordable cost trade-off to gain scale.”
The report’s authors found that the upstream substrate producers are taking the innovation lead in sustain- able packaging, working in areas such as mono-materi- als, with “high-barrier” properties that can also offer high recyclability, or incor-
porate recycled content. The report singled out board producers, pointing out that there is work underway on high-barrier materials to replace plastics using bio-derived products, most of which are recycla-
ble, compostable, or both. “For example, several specialty paper producers
Tetra Pak partnered with Australia’s Brownes Dairy to develop a fully renewable milk carton.