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Flexible packaging and source reduction

Flexible packaging embodies less material but much substance.

Flexible packaging is pliable, that is to say, it flexes. Source reduction espouses using less at the beginning so that there’s less to dispose of later. Since flexible packaging contains less material than does rigid packaging, its association with source reduction is not surprising; nonetheless, that association is neither as straightforward nor as simple as it’s often presented.

The use of flexible packaging yields a package-to-product weight ratio that translates into fewer trucks and less emissions; however, flexible packaging was being promoted on that basis even before sustainability grabbed headlines. Since then, the flexible packaging industries have emphasized additional sustainability qualities, not all of which are as unimpeachable as those related to transportation.

One example is the claim that the production of flexible packaging consumes less energy than does the production of rigid packaging. It’s not a given. That’s because flexible packaging includes paper, foil, and film, not only as individual substrates, but also in combined structures, such as laminations and coextrusions. Regarding the last two, energy is consumed in the production of the individual substrates and later in the converting processes.

Advocates of flexible packaging boast about its sustainability credentials, but caution: to be long on verve and short on veracity risks backlash from stakeholders, including regulators. It’s an unnecessary risk because flexible packaging can hold its own in the sustainability debate, without resorting to hyperbole. The reason is that so much of the calculus used for quantifying sustainability is subjective, thereby allowing any particular category of packaging to stake out its own territory within the sustainability landscape. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. It allows the various categories to continue the contributions on which their existences have been built, while providing an incentive to improve themselves vis-à-vis sustainability.

The petroleum-based plastics segment of flexible packaging is criticized by some for not being from a renewable resource. There’s no denying that fact. There’s also no denying that all of the aforementioned comments about source reduction also apply to plastics. As for the renewable resource argument, the various bio-polymers have enjoyed modest success, at best, and nothing presages that they will grow beyond niche applications.

Survey results that rank sustainability as a top influencer of consumers’ purchase behavior are not verified by marketplace results, ditto for results claiming a willingness to pay premium prices for the sake of sustainability. Consumers are reluctant to sacrifice. That characteristic is known by CPG companies, given that so many of their offerings promise some form of convenience (for example, time-saving, labor-saving, etc.).

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