Does a more sustainable package cost more?
The truth is that it all depends on your perspective.
If you step back and consider the whole packging system, you can find many opportunities to save money with more sustainable packaging. This is because there are costs beyond the package that can be reduced with more sustainable technologies.
Consider waste for a moment. Why do you think that companies have adopted the goal to become zero-waste generators? It is simple: waste costs money. There are fees associated with disposing of waste. There is value lost in waste. Savings (money) can be derived from either eliminating waste or recovering and reusing the waste material.
So how big is this potential profit pot? Consider for a monent that about 30% of the municipal solid waste that is landfilled each year is packaging waste. Paper, plastics and glass are the largest components. In 2007, the Census Bureau published that the waste collection, treatment and disposal industries totaled %54 billion in annual receipts.
A quick calculation provides a potential gain of $15 billion by eliminating landfill waste from packaging.
One of packaging’s primary purposes is to prevent product wasteage. A fully reasoned argument for the sustainability of a particular package must include the GHG associated with product wasteage. Most sources agree that the GHG associated with a particular package represent 10% to 15% of the product’s total. A change in packaging that reduces product wasteage can significantly impact the overall sustainability of the packaging system and generate savings for the packager.
So, why is there the perception that more sustainable packaging costs more? Because, with today’s technology and the scale of some of the developments, it does cost more to produce a more sustainable package. Collecting, cleaning and sorting materials in the recycle streams requires capital, materials, energy and labor. New materials are just developing and have not reached full economies of scale that the virgin producers enjoy. The additional cost of producing more sustainable packaging must be offset by savings throughout the total package lifecycle to assess the true cost of the advancement.