‘packaging - Practical Tips And Legislation‘

‘Packaging - Practical Tips and Legislation‘ 24th September 2009 Holiday Inn, Telford

With current legislation and a strong focus in the media, packaging is becoming an increasingly important issue to all businesses and is costing a lot of money each year. This event was supported by Envirowise and looked at the main issues surrounding packaging, the key areas to think about and the legal obligations of businesses.

Packaging - Practical Tips, Mark Shayler Envirowise Mark Shayler representing Envirowise opened the event giving an overview of packaging and resource efficiency. He began by covering some of the drivers for businesses to reduce their packaging giving them improved business efficiency, significant cost savings, increased sales and enhanced brand awareness. Bearing these drivers in mind he then moved on to look at the core strategies of packaging reduction and what they mean to businesses. He finished with some examples of what some well known companies have done to reduce their packaging and the benefits this has led to. Mark made a dry subject fascinating, and was inspirational to those listening.

Lyreco Case Study, Julie England Julie presented to the group about the challenge from Lyreco group to reduce glue use across the packaging of their products. Julie detailed the modifications undertaken by one of their Engineers highlighted a potential financial and environmental saving for the business. This small measure has made a 50% saving on glue cost since February 2009, with further reduction on packaging regulation obligations and costs yet to be confirmed. This presentation gave delegates an example of how using the expertise within your organisation and looking at your packaging from a different perspective can highlight small changes to make financial savings and reduce your legislative requirements.

Legislation Mark Shayler then returned to the floor to give an overview of the packaging legislation. He spoke about the drivers for the legislation, who it relates to and the obligations for those businesses affected. Mark also conveyed the importance for compliance from businesses as the fines for non-compliance have and are increasing. He brought it home to attendees by revealing that the second highest fine recorded was given to a Telford based company in 2007.

www.telfordbesst.co.uk

www.telfordbesst.co.uk Workshop The second part of the event was a practical workshop looking at the Heroes and Villains of packaging. Attendees were divided into 8 groups and were each given a selection of products and different packaging. They were tasked to identify the examples of good and bad packaging by looking at the below questions; • Is the product over packaged? • What materials are used? • Are they separable? • Are they reusable or recyclable? Each group then fed back to the other attendees their findings and reasons for selecting their Hero and Villain. This workshop enabled delegates to think about the purpose of packaging for different products and share ideas with other attendees. From this workshop a Top Tips Guide has been produced and can be found in the download library on the website for members.

Packaging Top Tips • Use the Waste Hierarchy – Eliminate,

Reduce, Re-use, Recycle

What did the attendees say…..

• Understand what role the packaging

‘Format is practical and excellent exercises engaging group members about the subject.’

• • • •

‘Excellent event - one of the best yet! Thank you’ ‘Very interesting and enjoyable event!’

performs Use recyclable materials Work with suppliers and customers Use returnable packaging Ensure you understand and meet packaging regulations where appropriate • Communicate to the whole company • Use your business neighbours

Some useful points of reference for reducing packaging are; Envirowise—Packaging Resource Efficiency Envirowise has some useful tools including Packaging Online Tool which simplifies this task of measuring the overall environmental impact of a packaging system by allowing you to assess packaging and also compare different packaging options using a small number of pre-defined environmental parameters. There are also a number of useful publications available for download. WRAP—Evolving Packaging Design. Useful information in regards to the Law, Brand Design and Innovation, Consumer Views and Tools and Techniques. There is also a useful document you can download all about material considerations.

For more information please visit www.telfordbesst.co.uk or call 01952 567567