Why three layers of plastic to package our food??
Recently a friend came around and she she brought a packet of waffles with her for us to share. We were both disgusted to see that each waffle was individually wrapped and then the four of them were placed into a plastic tray and then the filled tray was then placed in a plastic bag. There was simply more plastic than food – why??????
Another day recently, the same thing happened and there was a plastic bag of food pieces sitting inside a plastic tray, which was then all contained in the labelled plastic bag. Why did we need either the inner plastic bag or the tray?
Why did these manufacturers feel they had to have the 300g of food wrapped in three layers of plastic? The expense is one thing, but the environmental impact is nothing short of ridiculous.
This sort of packaging has to change.
There are not only the sheer expense of using such massive amount of unnecessary packaging and not meeting the National Packaging Covenant, which should be forcing food manufacturers to change, but consumers are very concerned with the use of excess packaging. This is going to start affecting sales significantly.
According to Mintel, one of the world’s top market intelligence agencies, manufacturers are going to have to address this concern and do it quickly.
The top 5 packaging trends for 2018, which were recently released by Mintel, show that consumers want less packaging, but enough to keep the food safe and still reduce waste.
These same consumers also want to know what manufacturers are doing to reduce and recycle their packaging waste. So obviously the first step these companies have to take, is to not use three layers of plastic to package food.
Another trend is clean labelling – labels saying simply what is in in the food. This is complicated because manufacturers have to legally include specific information on the label, so this is going to be difficult.
So there will be significant packaging changes ahead and it can only be good news for all, including the environment.