Analysis of the status of green packaging

Editor's note: A recent survey by the Continuing Packaging Coalition shows that sustainability has become a hot topic in the packaging industry and will impact the industry's development in the coming years.

According to a survey just launched by the Continuing Packaging Federation, Packaging Magazine and Converting magazine, the sustainability of packaged goods is getting more and more attention. The results of the benchmark survey of 1,255 people related to packaging showed that 73% of respondents believe that their company has paid more attention to the sustainability of packaging in the past year. With the constant formation of such awareness, the speed of implementing sustainable strategies in enterprises seems to be lagging behind.

There is no doubt that sustainability is a hot topic in the packaging industry and will affect the entire industry in the coming years. This driving force comes mainly from environmental issues such as global warming, energy consumption, and limited natural resources. The sustainability issue in packaging has crossed the boundaries between culture and geography, and is receiving widespread attention. The need for longer product preservation times and modern lifestyles for more competitive brands is the main driving force for packaging demand, and now it seems that it has also made outstanding contributions to the generation of waste. This pressure has forced the packaging industry to act immediately.

The higher the consciousness, the slower it becomes

Mark DiVito, research director of Reid Business Research, said, “The results of the survey show that packaging companies have different “green” positioning in four major areas. These issues include awareness and adoption of sustainability, and How to influence the formulation of a company's strategy and decisions, what actions it will take, how to set goals, and how to define the success of sustainable strategies."

The respondents were all from the Sustained Packaging Alliance (SPC) and are also subscribers of Converting and Packaging Digest magazines. The companies they represent are all related to packaging. The vast majority of participants come from packaging consumer goods companies, including raw material manufacturers, packaging manufacturers, machinery manufacturers, packaging service providers, and retailers.

For a company, implementing a continuous strategy will bring many benefits to it. About one-quarter of the respondents are executive managers in the company, of which 20% are from the engineering, marketing, research and development departments. About 10% is related to packaging design. The study also shows that many companies set up positions related to sustainable development.

As one investigator put it: "The challenge is to make all people aware of the importance of sustainable packaging." Different departments use different policies and rules. Eight months ago, we appointed a deputy manager of sustainability strategy and integrated all functions.

Never ignore the ecological environment

Through this survey, it can be seen that the sustainability of the entire packaging industry has become popular, especially for large companies with more than 1,000 employees, and for companies with formal, written sustainability policies, 46% of these companies. Respondents said they were "very familiar with" this. However, for all respondents, only 21% of respondents considered that they are very aware of the sustainability issues of packaging. Nearly 40% of respondents said "a little understanding" and 10% did not know it at all.