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Sustainable packaging: How much downgauging can you do?

As sustainable packaging practices continue to gain universal acceptance, unexpected consequences have surfaced—many of which were not initially obvious.

Downgauging is something that we are all faced with as consumers, consumer product manufacturers, and packaging converters/suppliers. Downgauging makes sense from an environmental standpoint and from a cost-reduction angle. And the downgauging of rigid plastic containers has been going on for years.

In the U.K., there is an organization called the Packaging Standards Council, and it has developed a packaging code that defines what packaging should do. The code is rather long, but to excerpt, two of its fundamental points are:

• Packaging must protect, preserve, and contain: This means it needs to be strong enough, act as an effective barrier between the contents and the environment, and be hygienic.

• Packaging must make a minimum demand on the environment: It should be made using a sensible amount of energy and raw materials, be safely disposed of, or—where appropriate—recovered or reused.

We are sure that other organizations have their own definitions. The terms protect, preserve, and contain are extremely important, but the bottom line in both the U.K. and the United States is that there are no real standards in terms of what that definition really means. Should a rigid food package be able to sustain an accidental fall of about 3’ from the bottom shelf of a refrigerator or from a broken grocery bag? What about a 4’ tumble?

How much physical protection is acceptable?

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