Behind the Scenes of Packaging Probe

New 3M Scotch tape packaging

2009-09-18T16:14:00.000-07:00

I recently came across this article about 3M re-envisioning the reuse of their Scotch Tape dispenser. What are your thoughts - will it work? Will 2 cents per dispenser to charity motivate consumers to bring it back? Have reuse schemes come of age?

I recall The Body Shop had a bottle reuse/refill program whereby you could refill your bottles of product and get a discount. It was eventually discontinued due to lack of uptake. For cosmetics, perhaps this is the case, since people buy cosmetics to "feel beautiful" - is this the case when you have a dirty old bottle?

On the other hand, there are things like printer cartridges which seem to be quite profitable to reuse, with very high reusage rates - they have made it easy to do so by providing a box and postage to send back to the manufacturer, i.e. HP.

But with low value products such as a plastic tape dispenser, will it fly (literally and figuratively)? Will consumers be motivated by altruism to bring back their tape dispensers? Let's see how 3M makes it easy for the customer to do so.

Big brands and sustainable drink packaging.

2009-05-23T17:19:00.000-07:00

I came across this article on Beverage Daily - some of the projected changes are pretty impressive, and I wonder if these may be too ambitious.

Packaging reduction at Tesco/Boxed water

2009-04-04T07:46:00.000-07:00

I have always applauded Tesco for being at the leading edge of environmental initiatives among mainstream grocery stores.

Two days ago, I got wind of their new initiative for customers to leave their packaging waste at the till. It is currently only in trial phase at several stores, but it was a consumer-driven initiative. It may cause them some waste disposal headaches, but overall I see it as a way not only to do the right thing, but also to see, from the waste collected, where they could improve their packaging design. I am also not sure how it will work in terms of non-private label supplier waste, if they will have to subsidize the plan or not. I hope that they publish the results of this trial soon!

Globally, there has been a bit of a kerfuffle raised around bottled water. Of course, water bottles are theoretically recyclable and are made of valuable materials, but I read that something like 75% of bottled water ends up as litter, in landfills, or awfully enough, in the great Pacific garbage patch. This company has come out with Boxed Water. An interesting way to package water, certainly, but it is packaged in a Tetra Pak, which is often difficult to recycle and has limited recycling options globally. It shall be interesting to look at this as time goes on - will customers like water packaged in a non-transparent container? Is it really a better alternative, given that the process of making paper is very harmful? Will TetraPak and carton manufacturers expand recycling facilities so that they are widely available?

Long time no update!

2009-03-31T18:54:00.001-07:00

Good news, packaging friends. I wanted to point out a number of new packaging initiatives out there that may soon put Packaging Probe out of commission. This, of course, is a good thing, meaning that our goal of packaging reduction has been attained. While I doubt that we'll ever reach zero packaging due to safety concerns, it looks like lots of positive strides are being made.

Greener Package launched earlier this year with tons of resources on sustainable packaging, including up to date news, discussion forums, an all sorts of research. Amazing work. They are also building up a sustainable packaging database that will share the best designs. I also heard through the grapevine that Wal-Mart is preparing to use some interesting packaging software that ensure the optimization of packaging usage.

I had bookmarked this shoebox earlier on in the year to show that you can have a non-cube shaped shoebox that protects and is stackable. Great design from Newton Running!

On another note, the recyclables market is starting to see an uptick again. With the recession, there were stories of recyclables heading to China, only to be turned back again. It only drives home the necessity of packaging reduction rather than recycling!

Until next time,

HKM

Biodegradability in landfills

2009-01-30T09:02:00.000-08:00

We received a great question from Jenny that asked us, "Is there an environmentally friendly plastic bag that will biodegrade in the landfill?"

This is a tough question to answer because plastic bags and biodegradable bags have their pluses and minuses. One fact to point out is that things do not biodegrade in landfills (if they do, there are very few of these that have anaerobic processes!)
They are meant to entomb garbage such that they don't leak into the environment. This is tough for an earth that is naturally predisposed to not creating waste. However, if you are lucky enough to have a backyard with a composter, it is great to stick the bags into there - just make sure to follow the directions on the bag!

Plastic bags are great in the sense that they are portable and light and really only make up 1% of landfill - but boy are they harmful! In Delhi, they have been known to clog up waste drains (as a result they are bringing out legislation to fine/jail people who still use them in their shops!), and many sea animals die every year from ingesting plastic bags. It also takes thousands and thousands of years for them to degrade (even scientists aren't even sure if that's the case!) So in that sense, biodegradable bags are less harmful since they will eventually degrade.

I hope that sheds some light on plastic bags for you all.

A shorter, fatter box...

2009-01-27T09:34:00.000-08:00

Kellogg's is trying out a shorter, stouter box that holds that same amount of food, but saves on materials and could fit into pantries better. Check it out: Kellogg boxes on AdAge

Environmental information in purchasing decisions

2008-11-22T14:17:00.000-08:00

As of late, I have been impressed with the initiatives of two stores operating in Canada - great merchandising efforts in an effort to facilitate environmentally conscious consumer decision making.

First, is RONA. They have a line of private label "green" friendly products and in-store they have information about the life cycle of each of these products. Pretty neat! More information here. I hope that they put together a more detailed corporate social responsibility report too, because they have a lot of initiatives that I would like to know more about.

Today I went to Ikea for the first time in ages and noticed that in the product details they have started including basic environmental information about the product. For example, for cotton placemats they added that it is a renewable resource (unfortunately nothing about heavy pesticide usage). For LED lights, they added the fact that it uses 70% less energy than incandescent lights. I mean, it's not thorough but certainly, the approach to educate is moving in the right direction. And I think it all makes sense in Ikea's philosophy of being extremely efficient in all that they do.

So, all that to say, I'm glad to see movement in the marketplace.

Changing habits with superconcentrates

2008-11-22T13:55:00.000-08:00

While I am thoroughly excited that consumer packaged goods companies finally have decided to re-concentrate products again, reduce the amount of water and excess packaging shipped around aimlessly, I have noticed that they have not adjusted the packaging to adjust for the reduced amount needed for use. For example, if I am used to pouring X amount of unconcentrated detergent to do my laundry with one bottle and actually only need 1/2X of the concentrate and its packaged in the same bottle, habit will make me pour X amount of the concentrate. There is a need to readjust the mouth of the bottle to adjust for this.

I have also noticed this same problem with Dish Detergent, Dawn in particular. Dawn has always been marketed as the ultra concentrated dish detergent, however the size of the spout is the same as unconcentrated dish detergent such as Sunlight or Palmolive. To be honest, alternating between these dish detergents, I have never noticed a huge performance difference despite squirting out the same amount of concentrated Dawn versus unconcentrated Sunlight or Palmolive. I wonder if we have to go back to those days of side-by-side advertisements comparing and contrasting the efficacy of dishwashing liquid performance.

On yet another panacea note.....

2008-10-23T20:35:00.001-07:00

Bamboo has been touted as the new miracle fiber. Bamboo is strong, grows quickly, and does not require pesticides, which is often the case with cotton. However, I found out the other day that the process of converting bamboo to a fiber is extremely toxic. This is the same with bamboo flooring, where finishes can be extremely toxic.

What can we do?

The fallacy of bioplastics

2008-10-23T20:13:00.001-07:00

Recently, I was at a client meeting. The client was a large retailer, and the topic we were discussing was bioplastics. I was surprised to hear that they were against them. In theory, bioplastics are a great idea - they don't require us to change our current consumption of plastics, just substitute them. And they biodegrade!

However, as the fellow who managed recycling for the retailer indicated, bioplastics are a logistical nightmare. He said that there are a wide variety of bioplastics available, and a wide quality of bioplastics available. This makes them hard to recycle. On top of that, they are often mistaken for normal plastics, and thrown into the same stream, often contaminating what is usually a profitable recycling venture. And lastly, some of the claims of biodegradability of these bioplastics are not as good as they seem - apparently the three month time frame for biodegrading is under really specific conditions.

So, in conclusion - until there are standards and facilities for bioplastics, they are not a packaging panacea. What are your thoughts on bioplastics? Will a resin identification code system need to be created for these too?

Kudos to HP!

2008-09-04T12:18:00.001-07:00

This article about an HP laptop being featured at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club just came into my Google Reader. I want to see one of these computers and bags in the flesh, but judging by the picture, what an ingenious way to make sure that the packaging gets reused many times! Also, what an ingenious way for consumers to promote the HP name not only through the computer lid, but also through the bag. Next: should HP have created multiple versions of these bags?

The Primer.......and progress on Nissin's front

2008-08-12T20:07:00.000-07:00

The past couple of days I've been working on making the primer 100% awesome with the appropriate graphics. Look for it at the end of this week!

On another kudos note, Packaging Probe talked about Nissin's wasteful usage of styrofoam in its cup noodle packaging and it appears that Nissin converted it to paper. Read about it here in Ping Mag.

Kudos to Poland Spring!

2008-08-02T14:47:00.000-07:00

On the weekend, I was in New York and had to pick up some bottled water because unfortunately, I forgot my trusty water bottle at home reserved for tap water. Upon opening the fridge and choosing a sport top Poland Spring 700mL bottle, I noticed that they had completely updated their cap! The new one, called the "Grip N' Flip" bottle, not only used much less material, but it also worked better than the old one. The old one always had a cap that you lost, and the retractable top always seemed to use a lot of material. I am certain that PS has seen a reduction in costs too from the less resource intensive bottle.

I hope they can adopt this bottle elsewhere now - since Nestle owns the company, I am certain that they will roll this out elsewhere. You can see the bottle here.

Good Reading for the Environmental Implications of Packaging

2008-07-23T18:26:00.000-07:00

I am not sure what planet I have been on, particularly working with Packaging Probe, but I just recently discovered the book Paper or Plastic: Searching for Solutions to an Overpackaged World by Daniel Imhoff to be a great resource for a website like Packaging Probe. I'm midway through it, but already there have been great case studies, and background on the social context of packaging. I can't wait to get through the rest of it. (I know, I'm a nerd)

2008-07-18T12:58:00.000-07:00

Way back in May 2007, Kitty wrote about the wasteful "double-cupping" practices employed by Tim Hortons. Since then, it looks like the company has improved - somewhat. I recently noticed that my local franchise no longer double-cups my coffee. My large coffee (one milk, one sugar) is now handed over in just one cup!

After noticing this at my regular franchise, I did some investigative research. It appears as though many Tim Hortons stores have stopped this practice. Well done!

However, I thought that a recent article published in Eye Magazine might be of interest to Packaging Probe readers. The mag recently published an open letter to Timmies - in it, is states:

"There are other areas you can improve on as well, such as your notorious litter problem. I got in touch with city hall and it just so happens that beverage containers make up one fifth of Toronto’s total litter, a significant portion of which is your cups. This isn’t a GTA phenomenon either, as Nova Scotia found 22 per cent of all litter was exclusively Tim Hortons cups.

Your representatives have made statements in the past that research is underway to create a recyclable or renewable cup, but in the meantime you have the initiative of 10 cents off coffee for travel- or ceramic-mug customers. These customers still make up an insignificant portion of your clientele however, leaving us to demand those cups that are, you say, in the works. Funny thing is, Timothy’s World Coffee, your similarly named competitor, already has compostable, corn-based cups and many other cafes have other vegetable-based biodegradable containers, so you might want to get on the bandwagon before your petroleum-lined biohazards fill up the landfill."

Whoa!! Well Tim Hortons, it looks like you're improving - and incremental changes (like stopping the double-cupping practices) are important moves in the right direction. While the jury still seems to be out on whether corn-based cups are the best alternative, I do believe that more can be done in the way of incentives for customers to bring in travel mugs.

As Canada's largest quick-service restaurant chain, Tim Hortons certainly has the clout. A public awareness campaign encouraging consumers to bring their own mugs would certainly be in-line with their ongoing "anti-litter" campaigns. This, combined with better incentives for customers to bring in reusable mugs, might really make a difference.

What you can do: Give Timmies some positive feedback (and some constructive critiscm!) at: 874 Sinclair Road
Oakville, ON
L6K 2Y1
Tel: (905) 845-6511
Fax: (905) 845-0265

And, be a good Canadian! Use a travel mug!

Re-inventing Milk Jugs, Clothing Purchasing Paralysis

2008-07-01T14:28:00.000-07:00

While reading the New York Times yesterday, I was extremely proud of Wal-Mart and Sam's Club for taking the lead in reinventing an icon in America- the milk jug. This article is evidence of how one small design change has the effect of reducing so much resource consumption up and down the supply chain. Kudos to them!

I also had a conversation the other day with a friend of my boyfriend's, and we discussed the difficulty of making purchases these days. With a simple t-shirt, for example, there are lots of considerations.

Was it made with cotton sprayed in oodles of pesticides?
Is it made out of polyester, an oil byproduct?
Will it last beyond one wash? Will it have pilled?
What is the lifecycle of the product?
Was it made under socially responsible conditions?
Was the person who made this shirt compensated enough?
Did a child make this shirt?

It is absolutely mind boggling all of the potential questions that one has. Holding companies accountable for all these questions leads to a lot of delays - in my head, it is worth it - however, not everyone thinks that way. There are stores such as H&M that rely on "fast fashion" - cheaply priced and made, stylish clothing that may not have been made in the best conditions. And even, if you are looking for sustainably made clothing, it is not always easy to find - most of the times it is in the largest cities and if you live in a small town, it is not everyone's favourite thing to buy clothing online. Just looking now for clothing companies that will be affordable, stylish, sustainably sourced, and in wide distribution.

Back in Canada!

2008-06-27T14:22:00.000-07:00

Apologies for the long time between updates. I have just returned to Toronto and am in the midst of a flurry of job applications! Alas, I just wanted to point out another thing I saw that broke my heart while I was away that concerned packaging - litter. While I was in Bolivia, we were in a bus that drove through a rural town, and it was littered in garbage. It drove home that many places in the world do not have facilities to handle garbage, never mind recycling, and it is depressing seeing a landscape wrecked by random garbage and detritus. This made me think a bit further about biodegradable packaging and its applications - there have been packages made out of corn, which are controversial given the rising cost of food. However, a better application is packaging made from agricultural waste material. I came across this today as I was reading up on new packaging technologies.

Any thoughts?

Greetings from South America, Naturopack, Greenshift

2008-05-06T09:52:00.000-07:00

Currently, I am away in South America and wanted to note a couple things that I had noticed in Brazil.

First, there are very few, if any, overpackaged items, likely out of necessity. Similarly, in the cities where I went (Rio, Curitiba), there were facilities all over the street to take care of inorganic (plastic, metal, paper) and organic waste. They were identified easily by colour. If only we could take a cue from these societies in North America!

Secondly, I was catching up on some reading in Corporate Knights, and I just wanted to point out a Toronto sustainable packaging organization called Naturopack. How did I not come across them earlier? They are doing some great work with disposable coffee cups along with Greenshift.

Energy usage in offices - a bazillion dollar idea

2008-04-05T09:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I was at one of the offices of one of Canada's Big Five banks on the trading floor, working on a project with some group members. I noticed a couple things as I was leaving around 9:30PM.

1) Everyone had about 3-5 monitors on their desk. (a necessity in this particular section of the industry)
2) Out of about 300 monitors, I saw maybe 4 or 5 turned off.
3) All of them had crazy screen savers on.

Now, this presents a bunch of implications. These computers are left on year round, through the day when people are working, through nights and weekends when people may or may not be working. For everyone other than intense bankers, the computer and monitor is on longer than the person is using it. Imagine the electricity and cooling costs these companies must be paying because of these computers.

If I recall my own experience working in an office, people don't like turning off their computers and monitors because it requires them to boot up their computer in the morning, which takes a long time because of logging in and getting past security firewalls, etc.

How about if there was a networked computer system, whereby you could set the computer to turn on 15 minutes before you get into the office, via, say, a text message? What about companies creating incentives for their employees to save energy by giving them prizes/bonus worth as much as they save? (The likelihood of this at a bank is perhaps not so great, but something that would approximate it.)

Discuss.

New Packaging Policy in Canada; Carbon Counting; Job Hunting

2008-03-12T21:50:00.000-07:00

While working on my independent study over the past few weeks, I've come across a couple of really interesting tidbits that I thought I would share with all of you (the maybe two, three readers that pass by and read this, including myself :P)

First, is that Canada is finally upgrading its packaging policy after 18 years - can you imagine the proliferation of waste that has occurred since then with the competition for shelf space? Anyway, the disappointing part of this is that it will be purely voluntary, so it is unlikely that manufacturers will be hopping up and down to reduce their packaging. Unless, of course, the Big W comes down on them hard with their packaging scorecard.

A second thing I found while working on my independent study (which by the way, is about the feasibility of carbon labels in Canada) is this non-profit organization called Carbon Counted, based out of good old Toronto. Right now one of the main barriers in having a carbon label is the sheer amount of time it takes to do life cycle analyses in the supply chain. What this aims to do is for everyone in the supply chain to report their own carbon emissions, streamlining it all, and getting up to the minute carbon counts. Nifty, huh?

The third thing I would like to mention is that I am nearing the end of my MBA and starting my job hunt. Switching careers right now is a little bit daunting, as this is the first time I've had to do this, but I'm in the research phase right now. I've found the Net Impact job postings to be a good lead so far, but any tips sent this way would be much appreciated.

Holy moly!

2008-02-16T08:52:00.001-08:00

It's been a month since our last post, apologies! I've been in the thick of school, Spencer has also been in the thick of school and proposed to his girlfriend (now fiancee!), Teresa and Toral have been on the job hunt in their respective cities, and Emma has just returned from Africa.

In the meantime, I just wanted to share with you a couple of things I've learned this month.

Jeremy Kendall from SunOpta came to speak at Schulich the other day. When I had gone to their website, I had dismissed them as another food company masquerading as a do-gooder with all the typical "natural" imagery - kids running through a field of sunflowers, blue skies, a picture of the earth, but I changed my mind after I heard Kendall speak. Just some background, the company has a couple divisions including Fruit, Private Label, Ingredients, and Distribution, as well as a "Bioprocess" and Minerals group. What impressed me much was that they were completely vertically integrated, and their usage of waste - the fruit waste was used to make bioethanol. Similarly, in their minerals group, they purchased old nickel slag and cutlet and resold it as an abrasive, which could be cleaned and used over and over again. Apparently the latter has been quite profitable, too! And related to Packaging Probe, it sounds like they have been developing some soy-based packaging.

I read this article today in the New York Times, For 'EcoMoms,' Saving Earth Begins at Home - I couldn't help but feel proud when I read this! Particularly knowing how much power that moms yield in making purchasing decisions, I hope that this EcoMom concept catches fire across the US. However, the way that the article ended, I certainly hope that there are not a faction of jaded EcoMoms that are dissuaded from such an initiative.

Positive goldfish swallowing a whale story

2008-01-14T16:16:00.000-08:00

When The Body Shop was absorbed by L'Oreal several years ago, the brand had already been dissolved, switching ownership many times already. And today, it is only a shell of what it used to be, with barely any of their principles staying true to once they once were when they were under the leadership of Anita Roddick (R.I.P.).

I did, however, hear the other day that once Estee Lauder absorbed Aveda, it not only maintained the integrity of the original company, but some of Aveda's principles spread over to its new parent company. Estee Lauder apparently uses eco-friendly packaging, but doesn't even flaunt it. Another win in the world of CSR.

Happy 2008!

2008-01-01T19:06:00.000-08:00

A new year comes with a new logo design with Packaging Probe. In addition to this, we have also added a new West Coast US packaging prober, T.W. Mak.

Paper towel usage

2007-12-21T11:26:00.000-08:00

Several years ago, while in the ladies room with my sister's friend Seema, she issued a challenge to dry our hands with as little paper towel as possible. Taking a little slab of paper towel (1 sheet only in that case) and drying both my hands thoroughly, I began to realize just how much waste there is from using paper towels. So, I issue the same challenge to you: next time you go to dry your hands with a paper towel, after you finish, open up your paper towel and see how much of the paper towel is actually moist.

My first foray into packaging

2007-12-16T11:20:00.000-08:00

To give some background on how I happened upon my interest in CSR, I’ll attempt it in a brief paragraph:

The several years at McGill had me struggling to reconcile the purpose of anti-corporation protests (FTAA/Summit of the Americas, WTO), literature (Naomi Klein’s No Logo), and even film (Joel Bakan’s 2003 documentary The Corporation) with the realities of modern society. In the proceeding two years however, I discovered the backgrounds of MNCs such as Starbucks and started reading business profiles of companies established and committed their way to social responsibility and sustainable business. Although I’m not an environmentalist/ecologist/human rights/political/philanthropic activist (nor even an expert), the ability to ‘be the change’ inspired me to head to business school, get my MBA, and become a part of the solution.

What is most interesting about CSR annual reports is that their number one stakeholder audience is their employees. According to a couple of academic articles as well as firsthand interviews with CSR/sustainability coordinators at major companies, companies are looking to not only make a difference, but to also placate their employees by using the report as an internal marketing tool. This is not to say that CSR reporting is solely for employees (as reports are often released to the general public as well), but is an important factor to take into consideration when analyzing the reports.

The above graphic actually comes from Unilever’s 2006 Sustainable Development Report. Unilever’s is just one of the reports I’m comparing in my upcoming thesis, “CSR Marketing Communications of American and Western European MNEs: A longitudinal study of stakeholder engagement” (forthcoming, Spring 2008).

As this blog is about packaging, it is important to regard the Unilever’s chart and commitment to packaging improvements. A couple of facts are obvious standouts:

1) The use of glass and paper/cardboard total 67% of Unilever’s packaging materials. In particular, I’ve always been intrigued by the use of glass in packaging and the alternate shift to plastics. From a cost-cutting regard, plastics seem to make more sense. So far as I can tell, they require less energy to create than glass (although they require the use of more oil). They’re less fragile than glass. And they also save companies money on shipping expenses, since shipping costs by weight.

2) The redesign of Suave shampoo bottles to save on plastic. Several companies (including bottled water manufacturer Poland Spring) are starting to gear themselves toward lightweight plastics to save more money and save more of the environment. This is great when you’re Poland Spring and have only one product to package (albeit in several formats).

But what about when you’re Unilever and have 700 brands worldwide to choose from? The problem of reducing then starts to mire itself in sheer conglomerate hierarchy. The people responsible for reducing Suave plastic resins are to be commended, but corporations never change overnight and the amount of time before other product lines switch to this packaging design might not be for another 5-10 years.

So, is Unilever acting responsibly? I would tend to think so, but it has a long way to go before it can tout throughout its product lines the biodegradable packaging extended to Hindustan Unilever soaps in India. Yet sheer market power (and the influence of retailers like the newfound sustainable Wal-Mart) will seem to encourage innovation in the domain of product packaging. Combining Unilever’s 2006 annual revenues of $60 billion with Procter & Gamble’s 2007 revenues of $76 billion, it is quite clear that any changes in consumer/household product packaging can have major impact on the state of the environment.