Sustainable Packaging

A Mediaplanet Guide to Greener Consumer Products

Sustainable Packaging

Lauren Singer Read the exclusive Q&A with the sustainability entrepreneur, blogger, and world-changer

Learn about the one proven way to reduce plastic packaging pollution Discover how consumers are holding businesses responsible for sustainability

JUNE 2021 | FUTUREOFBUSINESSANDTECH.COM

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A Q&A With Driscoll’s Packaging Development and Sustainability Manager, Camille Herrera How have you seen the packaging industry shift in the last few years toward more sustainable options?

It’s been really positive to see the new collaborations forming that help companies create packaging that can be recycled in practice, not just in theory. Many packaging materials can be recycled but sometimes there are problematic formats, inks, labels, or closures used that compromise the base material’s recyclability. Now we are seeing packaging industry groups collaborate more with recycling industry groups to identify best design practices.

How have you seen your consumers respond more positively to your emphasis on sustainable packaging in the past years?

Our consumers have been challenging us to provide more sustainable packaging solutions and we’ve listened. We’ve made it a point to bring our consumers and customers along the journey by sharing our progress and our challenges. We most recently launched our Berry Big™ strawberries and our consumers praised both the flavor and the new corrugated packaging.

How has going more sustainable with your packaging impacted the brand overall?

Driscoll’s has had the privilege to serve families around the world with fresh great tasting berries for over 100 years. As a brand, we now have an opportunity to enhance our consumers experience by ensuring that their purchase does not contribute to plastic waste by closing the loop on our clamshell recycling.

This has been paid for by Driscoll’s.

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The One Proven Way to Reduce Plastic Packaging Pollution Sander Defruyt Lead, New Plastics Economy

W

e have a major global problem caused by packaging waste and pollution. One staggering statistic indicates that a third of all plastic packaging ends up in the environment each year, polluting our oceans, rivers, and land. If we carry on like this, there will be triple the amount of plastic entering the ocean each year by 2040, and more plastic than fish in the sea by 2050.

To solve the problem of packaging waste and pollution, we need to recycle all packaging that cannot be eliminated or reused, but the recycling system as it is isn’t working. For the majority of packaging items both in the United States and globally, no recycling options are available, and only 14 percent of plastic packaging in the United States gets recycled at all.

An important part of the answer to fixing it lies in the economics.

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The trouble is that collecting, sorting and recycling packaging costs more than what recyclers get paid for recycled materials — there is a net cost. In order to attract investment and meaningfully scale recycling as a viable solution, that cost needs to be covered so the process becomes profitable.

The only proven way to generate ongoing and sufficient funding to cover the net cost of recycling is when the companies producing packaged products remain responsible for the packaging after its use.

Programs that require companies to pay for their packaging collection, sorting, and recycling are called extended producer responsibility (EPR).

This is a well-known and proven policy tool, and is already in place in many countries around the world, including Japan, South Korea and most EU member states. It has been proven to drive up recycling rates and could deliver a host of other benefits, such as reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, incentives for companies to design more easily recyclable packaging, or eliminate single-use packaging altogether, and the creation of local jobs.

The need for packaging EPR in the United States is increasingly

widely recognized. Legislators from ten states — California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington — introduced EPR bills in a coordinated effort this year. Meanwhile, the U.S. Plastics Pact, which brings together more than 95 organizations, including government entities, non-governmental organizations, research institutions, and businesses, highlighted EPR as instrumental to realizing their goals. These include 50 percent of plastic packaging being recycled or composted by 2025 and increased use of recycled materials in packaging.

The need for EPR programs for packaging is also being recognized globally. Earlier this month, mobilized by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, dozens of leading businesses, NGOs, and other stakeholders from across the value chain signed a joint statement calling for extended producer responsibility for packaging, including the very businesses who would have to cover the costs. They all recognized that without EPR, packaging collection and recycling is unlikely to be meaningfully scaled and tens of millions of tons of packaging will continue to pollute the environment every year. n

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Publisher Adare Kennedy Business Developer Abraham Freedberg Managing Director Luciana Olson Lead Designer Tiffany Pryor Designer Kayla Mendez Lead Editor Mina Fanous Copy Editor Kathleen Walsh Partnership and Distribution Manager Jordan Hernandez Director of Product Faye Godfrey Cover Photo Ysabella Langdon All photos are credited to Getty Images unless otherwise specified. This section was created by Mediaplanet and did not involve USA Today.

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How Driscoll’s Is Improving Packaging Sustainability

T

he future of sustainable packaging will mean having readily available packaging solutions that protect the fruit and minimizes impact on the environment.

But it requires everyone to work together — including food producers and distributors, packaging manufacturers, material recovery facilities, and consumers — to ensure that the recyclable content of plastic containers is recovered and reprocessed into new packaging.

Until the 1990s, Driscoll’s berries were sold in baskets.

Nowadays they’re sold in clear, vented plastic packaging known as a clamshell.

These lightweight containers, made of recycled plastic water bottles, both protect the fruit from damage and contamination, as well as reduce food waste since it controls moisture and promotes extended shelf-life.

“Berries require maximum attention to detail when it comes to packaging and transportation. They’re delicate, perishable, and really sensitive to temperature changes,” says Camille Herrera, packaging development and sustainability manager for Driscoll’s,

one of the world’s largest producers of fresh strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries. “It is our goal to have the berries placed into a refrigerated cooler or truck within two-and-a-half hours of them being harvested to ensure the highest quality berries are then shipped to retail stores around the country.”

Sustainable packaging Driscoll’s, which has over 100 years of farming heritage, is committed to growing in harmony with the environment and communities which they depend on.

“Driscoll’s is a family-owned

company and one of the things that sets us apart is we pride ourselves on being rooted in the communities in which we grow. We recognize that our consumers and communities deserve packaging solutions that do not put additional strain on local infrastructure and resources and can close the loop on plastic use,” says Herrera.

They’re advocates for pre-competitive collaborations, working with competitors to find environmentally friendly packaging solutions that benefit everyone. For example, they and over 20 others across the fresh berry industry have made a joint pledge called “Berry Sustainable” to achieve 100 percent recycle-ready packaging by 2025. In addition to their industry wide commitments, Driscoll’s is the first U.S. produce company to join The New Plastics Economy Global Commitment, which is led by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

Closing the loop Currently Driscoll’s clamshells contain over 50 percent recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET), sourced mainly from recycled bottles. In an effort to promote more of a closed-loop system, their goal is to incorporate 25 percent recycled content from post-consumer recycled clamshells by 2025.

By working with packaging suppliers to close the loop on clamshell recycling, it is estimated that in 2021 Driscoll’s will keep over 7.9 million lbs of PET clamshells from ending up in the landfill and reduce GHG emissions by 4.2MT CO2.

The equivalent of removing 887 passenger vehicles from the road annually.

Driscoll’s encourages consumers to learn more about their local recycling policies or look for the How2Recycle label to ensure they are recycling the clamshells properly.

Proper disposal will help minimize contamination of recycling bins so that local material recovery facilities can sort out the clamshells and bale them to be sold.

“If it can’t be sold, there’s no recycled material for our packing manufacturers to buy,” says Herrera. “By creating this demand, we’re signaling to the consumer that we are serious about recovering our packaging, we’re signaling to the recycling industry that we want them to collect clamshells because they’ll be able to sell them. And we’re telling manufacturers that we want them to buy recycled content to use in new packaging.”

They encourage other companies to commit to transparency, engage with their suppliers, and to learn the recycling landscape.

“To make the biggest impact, you have to collaborate. I’d encourage folks to meet with all stakeholders and share learnings to help advance recycling solutions.” says Herrera. “This should just be the new bar.” n Kristen Castillo

Check out Driscoll’s online at @driscollsberry for their latest product and packaging innovations.

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A Conversation on the Future of Packaging With Troy Swope, CEO of Plant-Based Fiber Manufacturer, Footprint How are companies becoming more sustainable?

Consumer and regulatory trends are helping prompt more companies to make a visible change in replacing everything from plastic and foam food cups to clamshells, utensils, bowls, and meat trays. The EU is banning foam cups, as are 20 other countries, numerous U.S. states, many U.S. cities, and college campuses. We see major companies, retailers, and emerging brands like Beyond Meat embracing new sustainable materials from Footprint to meet their company and customer commitments.

How do you navigate between sustainable practices that have a real impact and pop-up trends?

Pop-up trends are still problematic.

When you hear “bioplastic,” it’s still plastic! “Biodegradable” is another tricky term — technically something can biodegrade — but not necessarily into harmless matter. So, as we’re working with customers on real solutions that are end-to-end sustainable, we have to factor in the use case: how much of the packaging touches food, what barriers for oil, moisture, or air are needed to perform safely and extend shelf life, and at the “end of life” will nature be able to digest it?

What advice do you have for companies looking to make packaging more sustainable?

Many companies have made aggressive climate pledge commitments, yet few solutions exist to help them meet those commitments. Footprint is the only company that is offering plant-based fıbers with Footprint Barrier Technology that preserves food, performs like plastic, and can be digested by the earth.

This has been paid for by Footprint.

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Pioneering Brands Look to Regeneration as the Appetite for Positive Change Grows It’s becoming clear that the way we live and do business is no longer serving us well.

Our “use it then lose it” approach to natural resources is pushing the planet beyond breaking point.

Our economic system has created unimaginable wealth, but only for the few. And the global pandemic only served to throw these problems into sharper relief.

The system is creaking and there is a growing appetite for change, not least from individuals. According to the recent Regeneration Rising study, which canvassed 3,000 people across the United States, the United Kingdom, and China, 84 percent of people think the economy should be rebuilt to champion both inclusivity and sustainability, putting people and planet first.

People understand that the fight against climate change will be a team effort. Eighty-five percent say we must work together urgently to tackle it. Already, 93 percent of respondents have adopted one or more sustainable habits such as recycling (77 percent), refusing single-use plastic (63 percent), following a climate-friendly diet (51 percent),

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or simply consuming less in general (58 percent). Now people say they are willing to go further and seven out of 10 say they are prepared to make dramatic changes to their lifestyle if it will protect the planet.

While people of all ages aspire to live more sustainably — 94 percent in total — younger generations are more given to grand gestures. Seventy-one percent of young people say they would attend a protest, compared to 48 percent of the total population across all three markets, and 52 percent would even get arrested at one. Sixty percent would give up animal products and 71 percent claim they would consider foregoing having a family if it helps.

People are willing to change but, crucially, they are looking to brands and businesses to step up and show leadership. Almost nine out of 10 (88 percent) believe that companies have a responsibility to take care of the planet and its people and 86 percent of people now expect businesses to play their part in solving big challenges like climate change.

People also want to see businesses shift their priorities: 82 percent think they should now put people and planet before profit. People also want more practical help and will welcome efforts that help them live more sustainably. For instance, 81 percent of respondents say that they are more likely to purchase if brands make it easier to reuse or recycle their products and packaging.

Businesses are under growing pressure on a number of fronts to deliver on sustainability, including this grassroots pressure from their customers.

Pioneering brands are now going beyond the basics of compliance and looking to regeneration as the future of sustainability. This means managing out negative impacts, but also pursuing positive ones across the triple bottom line. Such an approach will be welcomed by the 83 percent of the study’s respondents who believe businesses and brands should focus on having a positive impact on the planet, rather than just doing less harm.

Whether setting bold transformational goals on carbon emissions like Microsoft or committing to regenerative agriculture practices like Danone and Nestlé, the pioneers have recognized that in the future, how they nurture people and the environment will be critical to their own resilience and growth.

While regeneration is a fairly unfamiliar concept to most people surveyed, the idea of brands delivering a restorative impact on communities and ecosystems resonates strongly with many. Eighty-one percent say the prospect fills them with hope and 75 percent would actively look to buy from brands who are setting ambitious goals to achieve it.

Brands that advocate and lead by adopting regenerative practices will build resilience, for themselves and for society. n Marrie Strafford, Global Director, Wunderman Thompson

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How Plant-Based Packaging Can Solve the Plastic Crisis

Plastic packaging is creating environmental and human health crises. With its plantbased alternative, material science company Footprint makes breakthrough packaging that’s better for the planet and people.

Plastics have long been the preferred packaging material for many of the goods we buy — especially foods and beverages. Yet only about 5 percent of plastics used actually get recycled.

“Most Americans think when you put anything plastic into the blue recycling bin,

some very high percentage will get recycled,” said Susan Koehler, Footprint’s chief marketing officer. “That is a big myth — unfortunately most packaging doesn’t actually get recycled.”

The other 95 percent goes into landfills, oceans, and other ecosystems, hurting the planet and its wildlife.

There’s a human cost of plastic packaging, too: research suggests that, when heated or scratched, plastics can leach chemicals into foods, causing cancer and other diseases.

Footprint is helping to further reduce the need for

single-use plastics with its patented plant-fiber-based packaging. The packaging is compostable, and it eliminates the risk of harmful chemicals leaching into our foods.

“Footprint solutions perform like plastic, but are digestible by the Earth,” Koehler said. “They’re made of compostable, recyclable, biobased plant fibers.”

Additionally, Koehler says the cost of Footprint’s packaging is comparable to that of virgin, single-use plastics, which have become ubiquitous because they’re cheap to make and use.

“At the volumes of most of our customers, we’re at virtual parity pricing, so swapping out new, plant-based materials solutions that are healthier for people and the planet can now be part of mainstream offerings from any brand. Consumers are demanding it, and companies moving quickly are being rewarded,” she said.

Business sense Consumers want to support brands that work to improve the health of the Earth and humans. In its April 2021 report, “Regenerative Rising: Sustainability Futures,” Wunderman Thompson Intelligence found that 83 percent of people in the United States, the United Kingdom, and China thought that companies need to focus on making a positive impact on the planet and its people, rather than just not doing harm.

“People are crying out for leadership,” said Marie Stafford, global director of Wunderman Thompson.

“There’s kind of this growing consciousness that we need brands to do more.”

With real rewards out there for businesses that adopt sustainable practices, some of the world’s largest corporations are making wholesale changes for the better. For example, McDonald’s, Procter & Gamble, and Unilever have all set goals to use 100 percent recyclable, reusable, and/or compostable packaging for consumer goods by 2025.

“There’s starting to be a shift; sustainability used to be seen as a burden, a cost to the business,” Stafford said. “Gradually, people are starting to realize that it’s actually an opportunity. This is what people are looking for,

this is what investors are looking for. It makes your business more resilient.”

Another company striving to reduce its carbon footprint is Conagra, which partnered with Footprint to replace the plastic bowls used for some of its foods with a first-of-its-kind plant-based bowl.

The plant-fiber bowls are used in Conagra’s Healthy Choice Power Bowls, Hungry-Man Double Meat Bowls, and P.F. Chang’s Ramen single-serve meals. The new bowls are microwave-safe, non-stick, and cooler to the touch than traditional plastic bowls, and leave a 50-70 percent smaller carbon footprint.

Being heard As a consumer, one of the most effective things you can do to enact change is to vote with your wallet; research which companies are striving to use more recyclable, reusable, and compostable materials, and support them.

“The consumer has a lot of power,” Koehler said.

One thing you can do is buy products that carry the Footprint logo, which means they use Footprint’s plant-based packaging instead of plastics.

You can also join Footprint in its Pledge 2050 campaign at pledge2050.org, and commit to giving up a source of single-use plastics — whether it’s utensils, bags, bottles, or straws. n Dustin Brennan

To learn more about Footprint and its sustainable scienti�ıc endeavors, visit footprintus.com

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What sustainability trends have you seen become the new normal for many companies?

Consumers are increasingly aware of the circular economy model and are demanding solutions to replace problem plastics. Companies are exploring innovative ways to provide that “wow” factor in the unboxing experience, while balancing that with sustainable attributes like being 100 percent recyclable or able to reseal and return in the same box.

How has sustainable packaging allowed you to remain focused on being a circular business?

We operate a closed loop model where our products are made from renewable materials and are recycled at rates approaching 90 percent.

Our ambitious sustainability strategy, launched in 2020, allows us to move beyond just having a strong circular business model ourselves to delivering more circular solutions for our customers and wider society — replacing problem plastics, taking carbon out of supply chains, and providing innovative closed loop solutions.

What advice do you have for companies looking to take the �ırst step toward more sustainable packaging operations?

It starts with having a clear vision and company purpose. Ours is “Redefıning Packaging for a Changing World,” and it has never been more relevant as we come out of a year defıned by unprecedented change. Businesses should respond to consumer demand and provide sustainable packaging and continue to innovate.

This has been paid for by DS Smith.

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Going ZeroWaste Is a Stepby-Step Process Blogger, entrepreneur, and environmental activist Lauren Singer answers questions about how she �ırst went zero-waste and how you can get started, too.

What inspired you to start Trash is for Tossers?

Trash is for Tossers is now almost 10 years old which is very crazy.

It started really as a way for me to document my personal journey to reduce my waste, as a way to hold myself accountable to my impact on the planet.

I realized really quickly that I had to start doing things like making my own products, finding alternatives to forms of waste in plastic packaging that I didn’t really think of or know about before, and there was so much research that went into shifting my day-to-day consumption habits. Trash is for Tossers was really a way for me to document that journey and also to make the

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resources available for people who were also, like me, interested in reducing their waste but didn’t necessarily know the steps to take or how to hold themselves accountable to living more sustainably.

How have you seen the world turn toward a more sustainable future in the past few years?

Oh my gosh it’s incredible! I mean when I was studying in college, the environmental studies program was so small you could count everybody in it on your fingers and toes. From starting Trash is for Tossers and really building out zero-waste, I’ve seen it grow so exponentially where there are so many people that I’ve never communicated with that have their own platforms for sustainability, that are growing a sustainability movement within their dedicated corners of TikTok and Instagram.

There are more consumer companies focused on sustainability now than

PHOTO: YSABELLA LANGDON

Managing Director of Packaging at DS Smith, Mark Ushpol, Explains How to Maintain a Circular Business

ever before. It’s still a small contingency however it’s rapidly growing and that’s incredibly promising for the for the future of our planet.

What advice do you have for people trying to follow your lead and live a zero-waste lifestyle?

It makes an impact even if it’s just one little thing. Even decreasing your overall waste by 10 percent can remove hundreds of pounds of trash from landfills per year and that’s major. Every positive step is positive when it comes to mitigating climate change and having a more sustainable impact on the planet, so it really is about just trying one thing and if it doesn’t work try something else. Just doing whatever little thing you can. It doesn’t have to take any time out of your day-to-day life, it doesn’t have to cost you any money, it doesn’t have to be an inconvenience. Really what I found through doing this for 10 years is it’s been like exactly the opposite. n

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How Circular Are You Right Now?

R

ecent exposés

by National Geographic, The New York Times, and NPR discovered a sobering fact: of the 8.3 billion tons of plastic produced since the 1950s, only 9 percent has been recycled and 12 percent incinerated, leaving 6.3 billion tons as waste in landfills, or worse, in our waterways.

In other words, we can’t be sure that problem plastics intended to be recycled will actually ever be recycled, and as the e-commerce explosion brings more packaging into shoppers’ homes, a recent McKinsey study on U.S. consumers found that 60-70 percent said they would pay more for sustainable packaging, 52 percent said they would buy more products with sustainable packaging, and 35 percent of respondents would buy additional sustainably packaged products if they were more available.

It’s clear that the time is now to embrace the shift to a circular economy and acknowledge that fiber-based packaging is the solution.

Why �ıber?

Fiber-based packaging made from paper is renewable by nature. With its inherent recyclability and biodegradability, it reduces waste to landfills and stops the pollution of our water systems.

DS Smith’s business model is circular, beginning with a

commitment to lead the way in forest conservation to preserve our source of renewable fibers. Industry-wide, two seedlings are planted for every tree harvested, adding up to 1 billion trees planted in the United States each year.

Once those fibers enter the recycling stream, they can be reused 7-10 times and be made into more packaging products in as little as 14 days.

Switching from fossil-fuel based materials to fiber-based is not only good for the environment, but it’s good for business. For example, DS Smith revolutionized the wholesale protein market with the development of Greencoat®, our 100 percent recyclable,

wax alternative coating that has enabled over 530,000 tons of corrugated packaging to be recycled instead of landfilled and reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 1.7 million metric tons over an 8-year period.

Our Greencoat customers are proving they can meet the demands of their customers and consumers, while reaching their sustainability goals.

Design matters Research confirms that 80 percent of the environmental impact of a product is determined during the design stage, and so in partnership with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, in 2020 we launched Circular Design

Principles to focus on designing out waste and trained our 700 designers to optimize package design using these principles. In 2021, in an industry first, we unveiled Circular Design Metrics, making it possible to see and compare the performance of package design across eight indicators, including recyclability, renewable content, and supply chain optimization. A clear assessment of circular performance can be made, and improvement opportunities quickly identified.

As part of our sustainability strategy to take 1 billion pieces of problem plastics off supermarket shelves by 2025, we’re continuing to innovate.

We recently developed GreenToteTM, the first 100 percent recyclable and reusable alternative to plastic bags for grocery pickup or delivery, and ECO Bowl, a more sustainable alternative to plastic packaging for frozen, chilled, and ambient food.

We’ve also partnered with Touchguard® to develop a new range of bacteria and virus-resistant sustainable cardboard packaging, and with TemperPack® to develop fully recyclable thermal insulation made from plant-based components and paper, alleviating the need to use unrecyclable Styrofoam for insulation.

Brands and retailers can become more circular by choosing renewable fiberbased packaging and by encouraging consumers to recycle their cardboard packaging, enabling those fibers to be reused.

Simply put, it’s time to let DS Smith be your gateway to a circular economy and give consumers what they want: truly sustainable, renewable, or reusable packaging. n Melanie Galloway, VP of Sales, Marketing, and Innovation for DS Smith North America

To learn more about circular-ready packaging, visit dssmith.com

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