Every supermarket has a distinct policy for all to see on its corporate or consumer-facing websites, to become more environment-friendly or more accurately just lately, carbon neutral.
Fresh produce packaging has always been pivotal in this mission. Some would argue that packaging is not entirely needed for most fruit and vegetables. There was a time, after all, when fresh produce would have been bought and sold loose as a matter of course.
Fast forward several decades, and it’s practically the opposite. Packaging is essential if only to have somewhere to put the place of origin, sell-by date, grower’s name; the list goes on, and when it comes to individually wrapped sweet potatoes, shrink-wrapped whole cucumbers, broccoli and swede to name a couple of examples, it seems to have gone a little out of control.
But times have changed and regulations are needed. Fresh produce comes from further afield, is transported in bulk and needs to be protected if the ever-critical UK consumer is going to pick it up. Shelf life has never been better -not something that is a coincidence, whether the produce is local or shipped in from half way around the world. And don’t forget the prepared sector, where packaging is vital and part of the overall appeal of the end product.
The last five years or so have seen a bit of a rollercoaster for the packaging debate, especially concerning the ‘green’ issue. It has been a learning curve, says Philip Sleightholme, managing director at PP Global, supplier of flexible plastic fruit and vegetable packing.
“Supermarkets have moved away from compostable product for economic and environmental reasons and it now accounts for around one to two per cent of the packaging in the multiples,” he explains. “This change has been in the last 18 months and for the simple reasons that people have realised that it’s not cheap and it’s not actually that green. The product is made from food starch that is mostly grown in the US and is sometimes GM, so the carbon footprint is high for sale in the UK. Also it is only compostable on an industrial level, not a domestic one and we do not have an industrial composter for this product in the UK and won’t for maybe three to four years.
“The true way to be green is to remove packaging where it isn’t needed and use renewables as much as possible.”
But times are hard. According to Sleightholme, the price of polymer has risen 30 per cent over the last 12 months, but supermarkets are “not accepting” price rises.
“EG LDPE polymer is up from £950 to more than £1,220 per tonne a month, which has resulted in a 15 per cent increase passed on to the packers. However, packers are telling us they are unable to pass this on to the supermarket and hence margins are eroded.
“The packers cannot afford to get nipped in the middle, so we as the supplier are sharing some of that pain. We hope that this is a temporary rise, but still wouldn’t like to take a bet on oil and petrol prices going down. The polymer market is controlled by six petrochemical companies that answer to no one, so they will not give up margin.”
Although Sleightholme admits that while high prices have limited and in some cases put a halt to innovation, the recession has made people take off their rose-tinted spectacles when they look at the green issue and environmental decisions are now based on what realistically can be afforded in the UK and the world, long term.
Stepac’s technology development director Gary Ward believes the pressure has eased off when it comes to going ‘green’. “As for demand for green, degradable packaging, to be honest, we have not felt any demand from customers at all. But we do believe that it is only a matter of time before our customers will feel pressure from retailers and demand green modified atmosphere (MA) packaging solutions from us. For this reason, we have developed degradable MA packaging for a limited number of produce items and will continue to grow this product line, Eco-Xtend, in the future. In the meantime, all our customers of our existing Xtend modified atmosphere packaging can claim that they are contributing to carbon footprint reduction by choosing seafreight over air transport.”
However, the environmental issue is still under analysis and various different ways of thinking are coming to the fore.
“Another angle to the carbon footprint story is that some consumer groups are coming out strongly against the use of any type of packaging,” continues Ward. “The Wageningen University study clearly indicates that carbon footprint is drastically reduced due to the use of packaging and that this offset far outweighs the minimal benefit of not using packaging.”
FLEXIBLE THINKING FOR ICEBERG PACKAGING
Image Flexibles, in conjunction with sister company LC Machinery, has launched an iceberg lettuce packing system that will use approximately 17 per cent less primary packaging than traditional packers.
The film, exclusively supplied by Image Flexibles for this system, is 15 micron, which is a 25 per cent reduction in thickness of film currently used in many bags.
The new system has advantages for the grower out in the iceberg lettuce field, according to the company. Tape is not required, therefore reducing the packaging waste of the cardboard cores from existing sealing tape as well as bags to collect the core while on the rig. The use of an automated system and film instead of individual bags reduces the risk of stray packaging being left on the grower’s field and it is known that a number of growers go through the fields after the lifting of the crop with up to 10 people to collect the waste left behind. Also, manufacturers’ tests have displayed an increase in product shelf life of between two and three days against the standard CPP film.
The technology on the rig-mounted packing system supplied by LC Machinery is available to record the size of the product and to adjust the amount of packaging used accordingly, therefore further reducing excess packaging and increasing output. A 2.5 per cent to five per cent increase in output and approximately 10 per cent saving on film usage can be achieved, the company says.
DEADLINE NEARS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL COMPLIANCE RULES
Environmental health consultancy Perry Scott Nash Associates Ltd is concerned that up to 5,500 businesses in England and Wales are not taking heed of certain environmental regulations. Janet Cox (pictured left), client services director at Perry Scott Nash, explains that if a company handles 50 tonnes or more of packaging a year and has an annual turnover of more than £2 million, it needs to take the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regs 2007 very seriously.
The legislation requires businesses to reuse, recover and recycle the waste that comes from products that they produce, says Cox. The UK recycled more than six million tonnes of packaging waste in 2008 and must continue to meet its targets for the recovery and recycling of these wastes set under EU directives.
Businesses that fail to comply with the regulations can be prosecuted and fined.
Types of waste covered by the regulations include electronic and electrical equipment (WEEE, pictured below) or waste packaging. Waste packaging covers everything from pallets to binding material and labels to boxes. It also includes items that are integrated into the packaging, as well as those that have been designed to be used and thrown away, such as measuring cups for washing powder.
In order to ensure businesses remain compliant, Cox is urging companies that qualify - be aware that if your company is part of a group, the thresholds apply to the aggregates of the group as a whole - to register directly with the Environment Agency or via a compliance scheme.
The online registration system is known as NPWD and a certificate of compliance will be required to be signed by an approved person and submitted by the 31 January deadline.
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