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Home » Publications » Factsheets
Factsheets The Life of Packaging - The complex life of packaging is mostly invisible to people who only see one small part of its role in enabling goods to go from producer or manufacturer via the retailer to the consumer and – having done its job – to be sent for recycling or energy recovery... read more Packaging & Sustainability - Without packaging, much food and many goods would be damaged or spoiled before they got to us. In less developed countries without the sophisticated distribution and packaging systems that we have in the UK, as much as 50% of food never reaches consumers. Packaging improves the sustainability of food supply.... read more Carbon Footprinting & LCA - Lifecycle assessment (LCA) quantifies the environmental burdens associated with a product, process or activity over its entire lifecycle, from production of the raw materials to disposal at end of life.... read more Lifecycle Thinking - the benefits - When manufacturers want to introduce a new product or service, or improve the performance of an existing one, they need to examine its environmental impact. This means understanding how it relates to the environment throughout its life. One way to do this is to apply Lifecycle Thinking LCT....read more Checklist for Applying Lifecycle Thinking - The main purpose of Lifecycle Thinking is to ensure that changes to one part of a system do not increase environmental impact in other parts.... read more LCA & Carbon Measurements:Uses & Abuses - Many assumptions have to be made in carrying out a lifecycle assessment (LCA). The results are never precise or consistent enough to enable comparisons to be made between alternative products.... read more Packaging & Deposits - Charging a refundable deposit on a pack on top of its price is intended to encourage the holder to return it when empty in order to redeem the deposit. This is why companies charge businesses a deposit on reusable delivery crates and pallets. Some regulators have suggested that deposits should be applied to some consumer packaging, usually drinks containers. However, deposits.... read more Energy from Waste - Recovering energy from unrecycled waste is preferable to landfilling it, according to the government’s waste hierarchy. There are a number of ways of recovering energy from waste....read more Packaging & Environmental Labels - There are more and more symbols on the goods we buy. Some, like the "traffic-light” nutritional label on foodstuffs or the crossed-out wheelie bin on electrical and electronic equipment, relate to the product, some relate to the packaging (the material used or its recyclability), and some to the product and packaging in combination ("carbon footprint”)....read more Too Much Packaging? - Packaging ensures that people can buy and use products when they want them, in good condition and with little wastage. However, many people think some goods have too much packaging. Everybody has a view on what’s too much packaging, but for an informed judgment people need to understand the decisions that packaging designers and packaging buyers have to make...read more Carrier Bags - Facts About Supermarket Carrier Bags - Initially the only argument put forward to justify the introduction of levies or bans on carrier bags was to reduce litter, but now it is claimed that levies will also reduce resource consumption and protect marine life....read more Packaging & Environment Legislation - The environmental impact of packaging in the UK is controlled by two different pieces of packaging legislation. One covers industry’s role in ensuring that the UK meets recovery and recycling targets, and the other requires producers to ensure that their packaging meets eco-design standards....read more (Using) Less Packaging - Reductions in the amount of packaging used – "lightweighting” – didn’t start when environmental awareness emerged. Manufacturers have always sought to use less packaging in order to keep costs down, and as technology has developed, packaging has become lighter and lighter....read more Litter & Packaging - Litter is any waste in the wrong place. Individuals create litter through thoughtless or anti-social behaviour. Only individuals can therefore prevent it. Many people think that litter and packaging are synonymous but statistically packaging is only a very small component of England’s litter at 1.3%....read more Packaging & Producer Responsibility - Producer responsibility is a policy concept designed to extend a manufacturer’s responsibility beyond the sale and use of its their products to include disposal at end of its life as well....read more Packaging From Recycled Materials - Many types of packaging – glass, metal, paper, cardboard, plastics – are widely recycled. There is also a long tradition of making packaging from recycled materials. Packaging from recycled materials makes sense when this provides an overall environmental benefit. Often this is the case, but sometimes it isn’t. This paper explains why not....read more Recycling - Recycling is a way to turn unwanted materials into new ones. It helps to reduce the need for virgin raw materials in manufacture, as well as reducing the amount of waste for disposal. Recycling can also save energy, as reprocessing waste materials, such as glass or metal, often uses less energy than processing the raw materials initially....read more Responsible Packaging - Responsible packaging is the aim of all. Companies have a commercial interest in packaging goods responsibly, because packaging represents a cost. Consumers are looking to them to ensure food and drink is fresh, wholesome and free from contamination and that other goods are blemish-free and in perfect working order. Consumers also want packaging to be easy to open and easy to recycle....read more Reusable Packaging - When people think of reusable packaging, they usually think of refillable drinks bottles – but there are many other types of reusable packaging. In Europe, the market share of refillable drinks bottles has been falling while the market share of reusable business-to-business packaging has been growing...read more Litter Logos on Packs - The International Tidyman litter logo has been used on packs for over 50 years and is one of the most widely recognised ‘environmental’ logos. In 1995, research commissioned by INCPEN on litter logos on packs found that while the Tidyman logo was the most widely recognised logo, it had become so familiar that it was like wallpaper - something that people noticed but paid little attention to....read more Waste Management - Managing waste is necessary to ensure that it does not pose a risk to health or the environment. In the past we mostly buried our waste in the ground but today the aim is to reduce the amount we send to landfill and to recover value from as much as possible....read more Facts About Packaging - Why do we need packaging? What is the best material for packaging? Find the answers to these questions and many more... read more |
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