White paper published on packaging industry’s approach to sustainability

Smithers Pira, in association with Packaging News, has published a white paper on the packaging industry’s approach to the principle and practice of sustainability. Many publicly held consumer packaged goods companies have made sustainability initiatives part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR), with packaging now an established part of the CSR mix alongside health and safety programmes. When asked to assess current strategies in packaging sustainability goals, overall, respondents rated the minimisation of packaging waste as the main element of their strategy, with two-thirds of respondents rating this as very important or critical to their efforts. Lightweighting/downgauging also featured near the top of our rankings, cited as very important/critical by 61% of respondents while the other key strategy leading to cost reduction, energy conservation, was rated similarly by 47% of respondents. Other key findings included a greater emphasis on the manufacture of recyclable materials (rated very important or critical by 64% of respondents) than the use of recycled materials (46%) and relatively little emphasis on the use of eco-labelling or development of biodegradables (26%) (Packaging News, 6 June 2013).