Organic buyers and retailers demand ecologically clean packaging

To put it bluntly: the times when it was enough to produce an ecologically sound and flawless product are over. Consumers have developed a keen awareness that not everything that looks beige is automatically sustainable. They demand ecologically clean packaging – ideally, of course, without higher prices or compromising on convenience. The trend reversal towards less plastic waste is in full swing. It’s a complex topic that is rapidly gaining momentum, not least since the introduction of the new Packaging Act.

Organic producers under pressure

Organic producers in particular, who have made sustainability their philosophy, are challenged in this respect. According to the latest analysis by British pollsters YouGov entitled “For the garbage can”, more than half of respondents (53%) would be prepared to change their “favorite store” if there was more environmentally friendly packaging next door.
Organic manufacturers are therefore looking for new, creative materials and concepts and are faced with an extremely complex issue. Not every food product can be packaged in every packaging innovation. And not every packaging innovation can withstand the conditions of the sorting plants, is recognized and ends up in the recycling system, thus closing the loop. Compostable films, for example, are often only industrially compostable. Disposed of with household waste, they fall through the sorting system’s detection grid and end up in incineration waste.

Security also conserves resources

It is important to weigh things up, because packaging fulfills an important protective function for product quality. Guaranteeing storage options, freshness and minimum shelf life, being hygienically perfect, protecting perishable goods and ensuring that they can also be consumed with pleasure, complying with legal requirements – no easy task. This is because packaging makes a significant contribution to preventing food – and therefore resources – from being wasted.

Solutions? There are many!

Plastic packaging made from plastic bags fished out of the oceans, paper and cardboard made from grass, agricultural waste or recycled coffee-to-go cups, bio-based plastics, cellophane – there are many and extremely diverse material alternatives. Organic products, especially organic food, require holistic packaging solutions from material to design, which have to be developed individually. Eberle offers special workshops for the development of packaging concepts.
If you look at packaging as a reflection of the brand philosophy in a very small space, it offers organic producers in particular a great opportunity for a unique position and the direct charging of their brand values.