Consumers Vote with their Feet

Ulrike Jakobi focussed on packaging decisions in the retail sector. The self-employed dean from Bensheim in Hesse said: "Last year, we opened a bakery with an adjoining catering area. catering area. We had done a lot of research into the topic of sustainability beforehand, as it is extremely important to us to be able to offer our customers alternative and sustainable packaging materials. Our choice fell on bakery bags made from grass paper. When we got the price, we were amazed. Nevertheless, we were determined to realise the idea. What the Bensheim-based company had hoped for from this choice of packaging did not materialise in the end: The customer did not value the decision in favour of a sustainable bag made from grass paper. "We were very surprised by questions such as whether we were taking food away from the animals," Jakobi noted. The people of Bensheim have also taken an exemplary and highly motivated lead when it comes to to-go cups and have joined a recyclable reusable system. "I regret to say that the majority of customers show no interest in this," she emphasised. Only a small proportion regularly buy "sustainably" and attach great importance to it. "We also have the option at the service counters to pack cream cheese in environmentally friendly tubs, for example. But it's always the same customers who ask for it," the saleswoman summarised soberly. With the coronavirus crisis and inflation, sustainability issues have completely faded into the background.

What is sustainable packaging anyway? Every material has its justification for a specific application, emphasised packaging expert Sonja Bähr. As a packaging analyst at the consulting firm Tilisco, the packaging engineer is a recognised figure among brand owners and in the packaging industry. Her credo was: "Every material must fulfil the requirements of the product. The packaging is not produced to be to be recycled or to be particularly environmentally friendly, but to protect the product as well as possible." Without packaging, there would be no fast, safe and hygienic supply of everyday goods. To ensure this, society today needs all common types of packaging and materials. Sustainability in packaging only comes into focus much later. This only seems different because the topic is currently on everyone's mind. "Of course plastic is sustainable packaging, of course paper is sustainable packaging. It always depends on what I define as sustainable." This sentence from Sonja Bähr is spot on. If a higher recyclability is required, there is more of a problem with laminates and coated papers. Good recyclability can also be achieved here, but is certainly more difficult to solve than with a mono-material made of plastic that can be used for the product. "This is the discussion we have to get involved in and which must be clarified on a case-by-case basis. It's a complex topic with few very simple answers," she emphasised.

Thomas Pfaff, Managing Director of Seufert, the manufacturer of transparent plastic packaging, began by taking up the cudgels in favour of all packaging materials, but then went on to state unequivocally: "If packaging is offered on the market today as an alternative that can only be used in the first place, then it must be used in the second place. When packaging is offered on the market today as an alternative that first has to be coated or laminated in order to fulfil its purpose, I ask myself how it can be labelled as ready for recycling or considered recyclable. In the end, a lot of this packaging has to be sent for thermal utilisation and has therefore not fulfilled its purpose."

Jörg Droese took a special position. The Managing Director of contract manufacturer Variopack is not only well versed in packaging issues, his company's core expertise lies in the production and filling of pouch packaging for food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and household hygiene. Droese knows what a packaging changeover can mean under certain circumstances. This business, which is designed to minimise costs, cannot cope with declining seal qualities and lower cycle rates. There are 130 heat-sealable packaging machines in Nidda. "We always need a sealing medium that is 90 percent polyethylene. We need a barrier because the products to be filled are becoming increasingly hygroscopic," emphasises the Variopack Managing Director. Although mono films are on the rise, it is currently important to pack products safely, well and durably. "If we save on packaging and the products only have a shelf life of one year, that would be fatal. If food has to be disposed of for reasons of shelf life, the sustainability aspect is null and void," he emphasised. 

"We now make many bonnets from cardboard that were previously made from plastic. We already had this back in the 1990s, when plastic was suddenly banned and we had to rethink," reports Matthias Volkmann, who heads up folding carton sales at Knapp. Knapp is a leader in the production of blister cards. Previously, a plastic cover was usually sealed onto the cardboard. This is no longer desirable for reasons of sustainability. Instead of displaying the product, it is now printed on the packaging and thus loses impetus at the POS.

The world is turning faster and faster, and not just when it comes to packaging. The "unpackaged shelf metres" at Edeka Jakobi are already history. The multitude of reusable systems in retail remains a thorn in the side of independent retailers. Customers supposedly want sustainable packaging, but don't ask for it. Convenience is more desirable, as is affordability. When it comes to packaging, painful experiences are not far away, because the packaging issue is unfortunately too often dogmatically driven.