Responsible packaging
Our approach to sustainability begins with our belief statement, which says: "We believe in responsible packaging".
The role of packaging
Packaging plays an important role in society. It is a fundamental component of supply chains, providing benefits such as product protection, consumer information, safe and convenient handling and product marketing. It makes a valuable contribution to sustainability by protecting the product, preventing product spoilage or breakage, preserving the resources invested in the product and ensuring it reaches the end user fit for its intended purpose.
We work continuously with our customers and suppliers, collaborating on supply chain assessments and utilising our proprietary life cycle analysis software, ASSET, to identify the most sustainable packaging solutions. Life cycle assessment provides the data required to make informed decisions about responsible packaging, accounting for the sustainability impacts of different packaging options throughout the value chain and across the entire product life cycle
END-OF-LIFE
- End-of-life packaging collection recovery
- Packaging reuse, re-fi lling, composting anaerobic digestion
- Packaging recycling
- Energy recovery
- Landfill
Use
- Storage life of the product in the home or other places of use
- Product life after opening (e.g. re-close features and portion control)
- Additional resource use required for use of the product (e.g. self-venting microwavable packages)
- Complete removal of the product from the package (e.g. residual product waste)
RETAIL
- Product shelf life
- Additional packaging or resources required at point of sale
Distribution
- Contribution of packaging weight to transport emissions
- Packing efficiency
- Support for efficient distribution (e.g. via electronic tagging and tracking)
Product Manufacture
- Filling efficiency
- Product spillage and spoilage
Packaging Manufacture
- Resource use
- Waste generation
Packaging Design
- Product protection
- Total life cycle impact
- Market and regulatory requirements
Raw Material Inputs
- The source of the materials
- Supplier ethics and responsible procurement
- Biodiversity impacts
- The environmental footprint of the materials
- Environmental and human health impacts
Packaging innovation reduces impacts throughout the supply chain
Amcor’s packaging innovations demonstrate how responsible packaging contributes to reducing impacts throughout the entire supply chain. These include:
- reducing the packaging footprint by down-gauging, using lower carbon footprint raw material inputs, increasing recycled material content, substituting packaging formats and reducing pack size and overall weight;
- increasing filling/packing line efficiency by designing packaging for faster sealing/ closure and more energy-efficient sterilisation methods;
- improving transport and distribution efficiency by designing packaging to maximise utilisation of available load space;
- improving transport and distribution efficiency by light-weighting rigid plastic containers whilst maintaining top-load strength to allow for substitution of secondary packaging (e.g. corrugated boxes for corrugated trays and shrink film);
- reducing the requirement for refrigeration in distribution and at the point of sale through aseptic or retort packaging that creates shelf-stable products;
- increasing the shelf life of consumer goods, for example, through the use of modified atmosphere packaging, particularly for fresh produce;
- extending product life and maintaining freshness of consumer goods in the home with re-closable packaging; and
- reducing energy consumption during food preparation and cooking, using microwavable packaging.
