- A study conducted by Gent University shows that consumers use 36% less mayonnaise when they use a squeeze bottle, compared to using a spoon and a glass jar. The choice of packaging type can help prevent the loss of product, for example, leftover mayonnaise that remains on the spoon or that cannot be removed from the jar.
- The introduction of the Senseo coffee pad resulted in a significant reduction of the environmental impact, compared to the method of brewing coffee with a filter machine that was common at the time. This is because a filter machine makes it hard to brew just one cup of coffee at a time. Instead, consumers often brew a half or full pot of coffee and keep it warm on the filter machine’s electric hot plate. On average, one third of the coffee is thrown away because its flavour deteriorates over time. Although the Senseo system uses more packaging materials per kilogramme of product, large quantities of coffee are saved and considerably less energy is used. LCAs reveal that the resulting environmental impact is significantly lower.
- Another trend is to concentrate products. By adding less water or even eliminating all water, the product volume is reduced and fewer packaging materials are required to package the same quantity of product. This also has a positive impact on storage, transport, and logistics.
Effective product use
A well-designed packaging makes the use of the product more effective. This can be achieved by packaging materials with a dosing feature or individually packaged portions. In these cases, the packaging ensures that the right quantity of product is available at the right time and that less product goes to waste. Some examples:
Examples
Why transport water if this is not necessary?
Unilever has reduced the amount of packaging materials used for liquid detergents such as Omo, Robijn, and Sunil by concentrating the products by a factor of two. The product itself, not its packaging, was the subject of Unilever’s studies. Go here for more information.
What about eliminating (virtually) all packaging materials?
Lush deliberately looked for a way to eliminate the packaging of its shampoo. The solution is a block of shampoo that resembles a bar of soap and lasts as long as three bottles of shampoo, on average. This reduces the amount of packaging materials used and prevents the unnecessary transport of water. Go here for more information.
A dosing bottle helps consumers optimally dose the product
Ecostyle introduced a recyclable and efficient bottle for its weed killer ECOstyle. This dosing bottle prevents product wastage because it allows consumers to dose the product carefully. With this bottle, it is no longer necessary to pour the product into a measuring cup and rinse the bottle. The recyclable bottle made of HDPE is also 20% lighter. Finally, the environmental impact of the logistical process was reduced because more of this type of bottle fit into a single cardboard box. Go here for more information.