Drivers, opportunities and barriers for a retailer in the pursuit of more sustainable packaging redesign

Abstract

Redesign can reduce the environmental impact generated by product packaging. The literature presents the elements to be observed in a packaging redesign, as well as the important role of the retailer in delivering more sustainable outcomes through consideration of product packaging. However, the literature is almost silent on the motivations, opportunities and barriers faced by the retailers that try to improve the packaging of the items sold in their stores. To fill this gap, a case study approach was adopted which investigated a global supermarket chain through interviews with senior management and participant observation. Findings suggest that the greatest motivation to the packaging redesign seems to be the economic gains (for the supermarket and its suppliers), which cogenerate environmental gains. The opportunities include the adjustment of the packaging size or type. Sizes could be increased when consumers buy more than one package during a single visit to the supermarket, or reduced when consumers discard part of a perishable product without consuming it (due to over-large packaging). Barriers result from commercial uncertainties associated with: how the new packaging will affect the sales of other items? How the new design will influence the number of times that a consumer visits the supermarket? And how the new design will affect the amount of money spent by the consumer on each visit? Further studies could investigate: how to mitigate these uncertainties? How to leverage sustainability based on the economic focus? How to identify redesign opportunities among thousands of sold items? And how to better convince the suppliers that reject the supermarket proposals? The understanding developed from the case study has facilitated the derivation of a number of propositions aiming to leverage sustainability gains from packaging redesign in practice.

Packaging-Related Food Losses and Waste: An Overview of Drivers and Issues

“…Packaging plays an essential part in food protection and thus can reduce FLW. Examples include non-adequate packaging (too large packaging sizes, inappropriate material, contaminated packaging, technical failures in the packaging process) [43][44][45]48,50,51,[55][56][57][58][59][60] or packaging that is too difficult to open [52,53] or to empty [39,54] so that its contents spill or are left in the package. Packaging saves food by mechanical protection or prolong its shelf life by a material with good barrier properties [76], through the use of modified atmosphere packaging [77] and, in the future, by intelligent or active packaging through the dynamic display of its microbiological status [82].…”

“…If a product is offered in two packs of 75 g that can be separately opened instead of one 150 g pack, there is a greater amount of packaging used per packed food. This may result in a higher environmental impact of packaging, as consumers have to buy multiple packages in a single visit [55], but also may result in a higher chance of consuming food in time [18]. An optimized apportionment not only helps households in reducing FLW, but also the retail sector by enabling a better management of stock [50].…”

Sustainable packaging as a tool for global sustainable development

“…One of them is the American organization Sustainable Packaging Coalition. SPC considers sustainable packaging as packaging that [10,11,12]: -throughout the entire life cycle is beneficial, safe and healthy for individuals and society as a whole, -meets market criteria for efficiency and costs, -is obtained, produced, transported and recycled using renewable energy, -optimizes the use of renewable or recycled source materials, -it is produced using cleaner production technologies and best practices, -it is made of materials that are safe for health under all foreseeable conditions of usage throughout its life cycle, -it is designed to optimize materials and energy, -it is designed in the way to optimize materials and energy usage, -is effectively recovered and used in biological and / or industrial closed circuits, i.e. from cradle to cradle.…”

Making Food Manageable – Packaging as a Code of Practice for Work Practices at the Supermarket

“…In spite of this growing critique, the actual transformation of packaging-related practices is still in its nascent stage. So far, changes are mainly restricted to incremental reductions, pilot projects, and packaging-free niches, while mainstream supermarkets still rely on mass amounts of single-use packaging (Gustavo et al 2018). Although supermarket chains (are forced to) acknowledge the importance of the issue, it seems that they are struggling to comply with the rising demand for packaging reduction.…”