Until recently, two factors guided food companies and their marketing departments when choosing packaging, whether for food service or final consumer products: safety, that is, the ability to preserve and protect the product, and the cost. To this equation, sometimes the visual potential was added, which translates into the ability of the packaging to have a format and labeling that makes it stand out on the shelf. Today, guided by the need to comply with ESG (Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance) criteria, multinationals and large national companies are being challenged to ask other questions before defining how they are going to deliver their products.
Is the packaging degradable? Is it recyclable and reusable? Is there already a reverse logistics chain for the chosen packaging that allows the material to be transformed back into another packaging or into another product that can also be recycled? We, in the steel packaging segment, have clearly noticed this change in trend in product marketing: companies are leaving behind packaging made of complex materials and migrating to sustainable chains.
A recent example is Gomes da Costa, which, last June, announced the replacement of the lids of its pâté cans, which were made of plastic, by steel lids. Now, both the can and the lid are produced with steel, material 100% and infinitely recyclable. When announcing the decision, the company declared its concern for the environment, as single-use plastic is one of the main causes of land and marine pollution.
This trend of changing packaging is also starting to reach, in an innovative way, hygiene and cleaning products. Unilever announced worldwide, in June, the substitution of packaging for liquid soaps, originally in pouches or plastic bottles, with a bottle made from sustainably sourced cellulose. As of 2022, consumers will be able to find the Omo brand in the new bottle and the pilot project will be carried out in Brazil.
With more conscious consumers, who demand coherent postures related to sustainability and diversity from companies, companies are also beginning to be pressured by governments around the world. This July, Germany announced a definitive ban on the marketing of disposable plastic and single-use styrofoam packaging.
In Brazil, there are already dozens of bills to ban the use of unsustainable packaging in fast-food products. One of them (PL 2056/2021), presented in June by deputy Alexandra Frota (PSDB/SP), aims to prohibit the manufacture, sale and reuse of plastic packaging for house paints throughout the national territory. despite representing a risk to the environment, they also put the health of the population at risk when reused for water or food storage.
The result of all this movement is that the cost factor will no longer be preponderant in the choice of packaging. In the 1980s and 1990s, the steel packaging segment regretfully accompanied the migration of some segments to cheaper packaging. Who doesn't remember the steel soybean oil can which, in addition to being 100% and infinitely recyclable, fully protected the product from oxidation, without the need to add chemical preservatives? And who doesn't remember the glass pots for mayonnaise?
So I would like to suggest some questions that companies should ask when choosing their packaging. Is the material recyclable? Is it revaluable? Is it degradable? Is it infinite chain or regenerative? Does the packaging already have a consolidated reverse logistics chain?
Some packaging materials have already established an efficient reverse logistics chain. Let's look at the example of aluminum and steel.
The steel recycling segment, through Prolata, created in 2012 by the Brazilian Association of Steel Packaging (Abeaço), managed to implement a recycling chain that brings together manufacturers, retailers, consumers, collectors and the steel industry. Today, there are 55 partner cooperatives in 31 municipalities and 11 states, plus the Federal District. Last year, 22,000 tons of steel cans were collected, which, sent to steel mills, were transformed into steel again.
When thinking about packaging, in addition to food safety, we must urgently think about chains, think about the return on packaging and the sustainability of industries.
Thais Fagury is a food engineer and president of the Brazilian Steel Packaging Association
Source: Mon - 07/20/2021
