There’s a good story to tell

Packaging is the vital supply chain component that makes today’s consumer-orientated society tick. Everyday items such as breakfast cereals and toothpaste, the occasional purchase of electrical goods or products ordered from the internet need to arrive with the consumer in a pristine state. Indeed the consumer demands it.

For food and drink products, long shelf life is a requirement with low wastage rates between packer filler and consumer. Packaging provides the solution. Indeed, if it were to suddenly disappear the retail sector would collapse within days, brand owners would no longer be able to differentiate their products, and society as we know it would very quickly degenerate into chaos, with widespread shortages of even the most essential items.

Why then does the mere mention of the word packaging evoke such hostility, especially from environmentalists? The answer in my view lies partly with packaging companies themselves who do little to promote the generic value of packaging per se, preferring instead to promote the exclusive benefits of their own products.

I would also ask what role the retailers, packer fillers and brand owners play in promoting packaging. After all, their very existence depends upon it.

More to be done

The Packaging Federation and Incpen, both with limited resources, do a very good job but more needs to be done.

Do people realise, for instance, that modern packaging and distribution systems mean that supply chain food wastage rates in the UK are amongst the lowest in the world, at about 3% compared with counties like Russia and India, where it is about 40%?

The need for food wastage reduction programmes in the third world counties is all too apparent. Indeed, there is a strong case for devoting some of our overseas aid budget to setting up packaging and distribution industries in these countries.

It is seldom recognised that the recycling rate for UK packaging waste has risen from 28% in 1998 to 67% in 2010. As a result, many materials have a very high recycled content level – in the case of corrugated cases, the average figure is 76%.

This is extremely good news. Not only do we help avoid landfill but for all materials there are significant energy and carbon savings from using recyclate as a raw material. Packaging waste therefore becomes a resource efficiency solution which plays a significant part in ‘greening the economy’.

Valuable

Is it well known that over the last 10 years we have virtually decoupled the growth in packaging from economic growth?. This has been achieved through a combination of capital investment in the latest technology, innovative design and lightweighting.

The UK is arguably the world leader in packaging design. Within CPI membership, we believe that about 400 people are employed in a packaging design or innovation capacity.

The packaging industry also makes a significant contribution to the UK economy. According to the Packaging Federation, it employs 85,000 people, with a sales revenue in excess of £11 billion. Productivity is more than double that of the average for UK manufacturing.

However, it is not one of those industries that enjoys governmental ‘favoured status’ and this is something that we need to continue to work on.

A number of the material organisations, including CPI, hold annual MP’s receptions (as does the Packaging Federation). We also actively encourage our MPs to get involved with local CPI members, especially those involved in producing corrugated.

Politicians are slowly getting the message and Mark Pawsey MP recently sponsored an excellent Westminster Hall debate on packaging.

Promoting our industry to politicians and civil servants is crucial. We are entering a phase of significant legislative activity on a number of different fronts which will almost certainly lead to increases in raw material, energy and transport costs.

The costs associated with achieving carbon reduction targets will also be immense (incidentally, why do we always penalise carbon emissions, which are falling, rather than carbon consumption, which is rising?).

Packaging not only makes a valuable contribution to the UK’s economy, but to the environment as well. It protects and preserves all manner of products, ensuring that consumers continue to enjoy a wide degree of choice in the things they purchase.

Important

While individual companies and their trade associations continue to promote the benefits of their own material or products and CPI makes no secret of the benefits of paper-related packaging) we need also to recognise the importance of promoting the interests of the wider packaging industry – it has a good story to tell.

Views expressed on this page are those of the author and may not be shared by this publication.