Firms can make more of the ‘eco-pack shopper’

Despite changing consumer demand in favour of value-added and discounted products, consumers are still swayed by the perceived environmental impact of packaging, claimed grocery think tank IGD and the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), the government-funded body that aims to reduce food waste and packaging in the UK.

A report called, Packaging and Recycling - Addressing Shopper Concern​, states that over half of consumers (54%) surveyed were influenced by the perceived environmental impact of food packaging.

“Sustainable packaging innovation can deliver a genuine advantage for companies,” said Tim Maton, senior consumer analyst at IGD. “Especially in a downturn, packaging that helps to reduce waste by combining environmental and functional benefits is compelling to most shoppers.”

Maton said that manufacturers can make more of current and future sustainable packaging initiatives by raising greater awareness of them on-pack, as one out of five shoppers, ‘the eco-pack shopper’, said that they actively seek or would switch to products with environmentally friendly packaging labels. One third of shoppers (33%) specifically bought loose products or avoided excess packaging where they could, the report claimed.

Consumers also singled out plastic as the material most in need of becoming environmentally friendly.

“In the current economic climate, manufacturers will be aware that as well as creating an extra selling point, they can save a lot of money by reducing their packaging,” said WRAP’s programme manager for household food waste prevention, Andrew Parry.

“This is why we are introducing several major projects across the supply chain: to educate companies on how best to implement the collection of mixed plastics, to sort and reprocess these plastics, and to design and manufacture plastic packaging to be more recyclable,” said Parry.

Parry said that WRAP was also supporting large-scale trials to recycle mixed plastics from retail “take back schemes”. These worked like bottle banks, said Parry, but collected plastics rather than glass. Sainsbury has already begun trials.