Packaging materials / packaging design

Support programme

Carbon Ready Reckoner

The Carbon Ready Reckoner (CRR) is an online tool specifically developed to enable interested parties in the food and drink sector to evaluate their carbon impact relating to design changes in: Packaging weight Recycled content or recycling rate Product concentration and palletisation efficiencies...
Best practices

Making small-sized custom-packaging viable

Small package, big opportunity... Optimisation of space on foam blocks Accelerated development process and wider customer base Less waste on the client-side Custom-packaging enterprises traditionally prefer industrial clients that order in bulk. This often meant one-size-fits-all solutions that used...
Best practices

Leading on resource efficiency, Welsh government

Tackling food waste as a priority Welsh government explored ways to reduce food and packaging waste Tackling food waste alone saves more than 16 tonnes of CO2 and over € 4 000 (£ 3 600) in costs per year The Welsh government employs around 5 500 staff and provides catering services at 10 of its 38...
Best practices

Less waste and fewer lorries on the road

Logistics in the driving seat of resource savings Rethinking how it handles packaging leads to integrated benefits Reusable metal crates saves 17 kg of packaging material per parcel (sent load) Indirect gains include reduced deliveries, less lorries on the road, financial savings and redcued CO2...
Best practices

SOUL, sustainable packaging for eggs

Heart and soul of green packaging Packaging specialist worried about large volumes of sludge containing reusable fibres New egg carton design leads to reduced waste and annual savings of € 20 000 Cemosa, located in Atxondo (Bizkaia, the Basque Country) produces moulded cellulose packaging, mainly...
Best practices

Capping materials and emissions at cap manufacturer

Putting a lid on energy losses Spanish firm discovers a whole world of ways to save energy, materials and costs Its resulting measures earn it a prize at the European Business Award for the Environment Ramondín Cápsulas produces several types of lids and caps for a range of products including tin...
Best practices

Innovative packaging for frozen products

Packaging is usually developed simply to protect products during transportation, storage and display. However, in some circumstances, more complex packaging can be useful. A company looked at markets where temperature control, such as frozen products, is critical and this led to an innovative...
Best practices

Film packaging, reducing fresh produce waste

Packaging tech tackles fresh food waste Successful trial of gas permeable packaging solution leads to full roll-out Solution has potential to cut product waste by up to 50 % throughout the supply chain and at home The fruit and vegetable sector has been identified as the second biggest sector in the...
Best practices

Sustainable packaging in food and drink industry

Packaging is a major part of the food and drinks sector. As awareness grows of the need to minimise the environmental impact of packaging throughout the product life-cycle, innovative companies are looking to ecodesign principles for improvements. One area of improvement is to reduce packaging...
Best practices

Applying sustainability requirements to packaging suppliers

Sustainable packaging may include packaging made from recycled (e.g. paper, plastic) or bio-based materials, reusable packaging, take-back schemes, etc. In order to save resources in line with circular economy and environmental principles, sustainable packaging issues should be integrated into...
Best practices

Packaging made from biopolymers

Biopolymer, the 'whey' forward Innovative EU project develops whey protein-based polymer New 'green' product performs as well as traditional plastics but can be easily recycled An EU-funded initiative created innovative biopolymers from cheese byproducts as a green packaging solution. This promising...
Best practices

World’s first product packaging made from ocean plastic

Packaging inspired by sea urchins Company sets up a business model to create packaging out of plastic marine debris Pioneering recycling process for plastic marine debris is developed Method, a cleaning products company, launched a new packaging line made from a blend of plastic recovered from the...