WHAT IS THE SCALE OF PACKAGING?
In this day and age of environmental awareness, and global climate change, one would contemplate that packaging would be reduced in size rather than being doubled or tripled in size. Dr Bruce Perrot, Marketing Expert from Sydney’s University of Technology says it’s all about branding and trying to make products stand out from the crowd. “It’s vital to have good brand penetration, part of which is making the packaging, at a prominent position on the shelf to keep the market share”.
Well-known environmental campaigner John Dee suggests that the supermarket chain duopoly in Australia should step up and play a major role in solving the problem with excess packaging. "They have such clout in the marketplace that they could refuse to buy products that are over-packaged and not recyclable as well”.
The value of packaging produced in Australia in 2005 was $AUD 10-10.5 billion. The value of world packaging in 2005 was estimated to be $US 300 billion. The Australian industry accounts for slightly in excess of 1% of GDP (gross domestic product)
- Almost 30 000 people are directly employed into packaging in Australia.
- The most common type of packaging in Australia is paper and cardboard, which takes up 36% of Australian packaging.
- 65-70% of Australian packaging is used in the food and beverages sector.
2.2 million tonnes of food waste is generated in Australia each year. The average Australian household generates around 400 kg of waste per annum, placing Australia amongst the top 10 generators of household waste in OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries. Each week the average Australian household saves through recycling:
- over 3 kg of gas emissions
- enough electricity to run a 40 watt light globe
- air pollution equivalent to 4.5 km of travel in a post 1985 car
- over 90 litres of water
- 3.6 kg of solid waste
The soft drink industry used to require 453 grams of packaging per each litre. In 2005, that amount was reduced to an average of 150 grams per litre, 67% less. In 2002-2003, Australians used 4 million tonnes of writing, printing, packaging paper and cardboard, 10.2% increase from 2001-2002. Of the 4 million tonnes used, 1.9 million was collected for recycling. One tonne of recycled paper and cardboard saves:
- approximately 13 trees
- 2.5 barrels of oil
- 4 100 KwH of electricity
- 4 cubic metres of landfill
- 31 780 litres of water
The scale of the problem leads back to Australia two most powerful supermarket chains, Coles and Woolworths. If this duopoly of the food market in Australia steps up and starts to make a change, the problem with excessive and over-packaged products would reduce considerably.