Packaging in full improvement
Cardboard, paper, kraft, clear bag, flask, box or bottle from plastic or glass: we don’t always pay attention to the packaging protecting our food...except when it’s time to throw it away. Because reducing our waste is also about where it comes from, here is how Bonduelle aims to reduce its packaging’s impact on the environment.
What’s a good packaging?
What we ask of packaging first and foremost is to protect the product it contains. It must protect it from a hygiene perspective (avoid microbiological and chemical risks) and avoid any blows to allow long-term storage. The product must reach our homes perfectly, even though it will go through many hands all along the transport route from the factory to the supermarket… and our cart. “We don’t really think about the actual purpose of a packaging”, highlights Charlene G., packaging innovation and development project manager at Bonduelle whose mission is also to improve packaging as much technically-speaking as for the environment. A good packaging must be practical at home too: easy opening, well-thought out closing mechanism… and be recognisable in the isles: with its logo, the ingredient list and all the legal mentions. “Packaging is the first contact with the brand” explains Charlene. A good packaging is above all protective, practical and informative.
“Lately, a good packaging is the one which takes into account reducing its environmental impact as much as possible. It is about reducing household waste at the source in multiple ways: choice of materials, reducing the weight, using recycled materials, using recyclable materials. Thus, we are aligned with a circular economy.” An ecological packaging remains a packaging which meets its primary purpose.
Reducing packaging’s environmental impact
“At Bonduelle, 100% of our packaging projects are focusing on sustainability” explains Charlene G. “Our goal is that in 2025, 100% of our packaging will be recyclable: that’s tomorrow!”. A single material packaging (such as cardboard with no plastic covering) improves recyclability. Hence, the technological choices made which favour recycling. Each product has its own requirements as illustrated by the sensitive storage of ready-to-eat salads: “salads keep breathing after they have been unearthed and emit CO2. As such, we have to look for materials which allow these exchanges with different permeability, temperature change resistance and respect of the plant’s physiology”. Currently produced using polypropylene, this type of packaging ensures perfect storage but it is now being revolutionised: Bonduelle was the first in France to make it from recycled polypropylene. 30% of the plastic used is now from recycled plastic for Bonduelle ready-to-eat organic salads - an incredible innovation in plastic packaging.
In the same apparch, the salad tubs from the deli range (grated carrots, coleslaw…) no longer have a lid since March 2021 on boxes of 300 and 320g. We think a lid isn’t much... but actually it represents 46% of the packaging’s weight! In total, it’s 550 tons of plastic avoided each year. Also, no more plastic forks: they are now made with unvarnished wood. Another responsible packaging approach with reduced environmental impact is the use of RPET for the (lid-less) tub of the organic deli range - a recycled plastic which aims to reduce carbon emissions and contributes to saving energy. Everyone needs to do a little to protect the food once the packaging is open: put it in an airtight container or cover it in wax paper which replaces cling film. By 2025, new things will make food packaging even more recyclable and sustainable!