June 2, 2008

Package Printers, Manufacturers Discuss Sustainability Efforts

Kevin Rabinovitch, director of sustainability for Mars North America, warns CPGs and converters to look beyond the direct impacts of their material and process choices, ConvertingMagazine reports. Mars, for instance, has analyzed the GHG emissions from the virgin production, recycling and disposal of four kinds of paperboard, eight types of plastic, glass, steel and aluminum.

Barbara McCutchan, director of enterprise stewardship and sustainability at paperboard-packaging company Meadwestvaco Corp., says sustainable packaging must equally protect the product and promote the brand. Renewable and non-renewable resources are investigated by MeadWestvaco to guarantee fiber sourcing via forest certification.

Sustainability was present in nearly each and every booth at last month’s Packaging Summit in Chicago, Barry Sanel of Barry Sanel Packaging Advisors wrote in a recent EL column.

Green packaging is making the transition from niche to mainstream as manufacturers come under pressure to go green, Cosmetics Design reports.

Some of that pressure is coming from retailers. Wal-Mart is measuring its 60,000 worldwide suppliers on their ability to develop packaging and conserve natural resources. Wal-Mart expects the project to reduce overall packaging by five percent and save 667,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.

During April’s FTC public workshop on product packaging claims, Amy Zettlemoyer-Lazar of Wal-Mart’s Sustainable Packaging Value Network and Sam’s Club Packaging, explained how they reduced the Honest Kids packaging weight from 13.6 grams to 8 grams.

Seventy-one percent of those surveyed want to know about the socially responsible behavior of brands they buy — but most cannot identify a list of major brands as socially responsible or socially irresponsible, according to an April 2008 poll of 5,000 North Americans for Conscientious Innovation’s latest Shift Report.

Earlier this year, the Dogwood Alliance released a report — “The 2008 Fast Food Packaging Report (PDF)” and a new website called “No Free Refills!” — focused on what it calls the destructive legacy of fast food packaging

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