The Dawn of Sustainability

JBX PaperPak was born with the vision of shifting the economy – both Irish and global – towards a more ethical and sustainable circular model. We believe that the time we are in now will come to be known in the future as the dawn of that change. We look around and see the direction things are moving in and, while we are not even close to being where we want to be, we are very optimistic. This shift has to be something that everyone across all levels of society gets involved in, but the key factor at this early stage is in big business commitment.

We wrote about the shifts toward more corporate responsibility companies are undertaking, read about it here.

There is a recent piece of news that we are particularly excited about, and that we think signifies more good things to come. Coca Cola, the soft drink giant, has announced that their new plant-based beverage will come in bottles made entirely from paper. This innovative packaging choice was made in response to the GlobalData survey that revealed the sustainability of product packaging influences the purchasing decisions of 43% of consumers worldwide. 12% of participants even stated it was their top priority when shopping, and 22% reported that they consider it to be much more important now since the beginning of the pandemic.

Coca Cola recognised what this data revealed about the future of packaging, and we know that a player as big as Coca Cola shifting towards sustainability will cause many more companies to follow suit. This will have a huge effect on a number of industries, but particularly retail and hospitality.

The Practice Head of Consumer Beverages at GlobalData, Arvind Kaila, said, “Coca-Cola’s paper bottle will open up a whole new world of possibilities for beverage companies. With growing pressure from consumers and government bodies alike on sustainability initiatives, it is no surprise that there has been a surge in research and development (R&D) into paper bottles.”

Kaila continued, “Consumers worldwide are increasingly expecting brands to develop and bring to market new and sustainable packaging innovations. Sustainability and reducing environmental impact have become increasingly critical to consumers’ brand perception in the pandemic because it has given consumers time to gain a new perspective on their environmental and social footprint… This innovation is an important step in the development of a viable liquid solution and is likely to impact overall beverage industry positively.”

The winds of change are already beginning to blow through the packaging industry, as other big brands make changes to their current practices in favour of more sustainable options. Smarties have made the full switch over to paper packets as part of Nestlé’s pledge to make all of its packaging recyclable by 2025. Nestlé is not the only company making changes however, as Pets Choice released their new Webbox range of cat food featuring a fully recyclable pouch.

On top of this, further changes are being made in the land of the Highstreet as Lush launch their ‘Bring It Back’ initiative. This scheme incentivises customers to return Lush product packaging to the store so it can be reused or recycled by offering a 50p deposit for customers to spend in store per item they bring back. Lidl is also switching things up in the steak aisle; the supermarket is transitioning its steak packaging over to the PaperSeal trays from Graphic Packaging. This will see a reduction of up to 90% of the plastic the supermarket uses to package its steaks.

These are but a few of the major changes being made by big brands all the time, and this fills us with optimism for the future. We know that consumer trends are moving in the sustainable direction and now that these huge companies are following, the number of business that join in will only increase. The green revolution is well and truly underway.