Reduce, reuse, recycler : imposed by AGEC law, demanded by consumers and by more and more distributors who are making it an image issue, the three Rs are now the credo of the industrial packaging sector, sector hitherto little known and quite reserved about its search for solutions. The last All4Pack Emballage Paris show, from November 21 to 24, 2022, major annual meeting of the profession, testified that manufacturers and companies using packaging are now pursuing the same objective : design useful packaging with minimal environmental impact. In Reunion too, encouraged by the sting of increasingly restrictive regulations, awareness is growing, and businesses, like LM Distribution, engage.
“In an increasingly worrying environmental context, completely rethinking packaging is a strategic issue for manufacturers and users. Packaging must reinvent itself”, announced Guillaume Schaeffer, director of All4pack Emballage Paris, approaching a show which will go down in history as that of the changeover. Until then, ecological concern was a parameter taken into account among others. From now on, it at the center of all manufacturing processes. Ahead of this 2022 edition, the show community, packaging suppliers and user industries, was asked about her vision of the evolution of packaging materials. The results no longer leave room for the slightest ambiguity. For 88% of respondents, the use of more environmentally friendly packaging has become a priority issue. The main reasons motivating this transition are consumer expectations (69 %), the benefits in terms of image (56 %) and changes in legislation (49 %). On the contrary, the brakes expressed are, unsurprisingly, the cost of environmentally friendly packaging materials (63 %), followed by their availability (43 %) and their quality (37 %). Note that these obstacles are more perceived by the user industries (43 %) only by suppliers (27 %). However, in 29% of the latter, the amount of investments required to use these materials is cited as another obstacle.
What an alternative to plastic ?
Cardboard paper (77 %) and plastic (73 %) remain the main materials used for packaging. Biomaterials are still not very present (18 %). Asked about the nature of the materials that will be used in the next two years, 37% of respondents say they want to turn to biomaterials and 46% want to use more paper and cardboard. The use of plastic will continue to decline : 32% of decision-makers surveyed plan to reduce their use of this resource. However, we notice that few of them plan to abandon plastic altogether. (5 %). Uses of metal, glass and wood should, as for them, remain relatively stable.
The way we look at packaging is changing
A majority of French people continue to find that packaging is extremely useful or very useful. This is what an IFOP study carried out in 2020 for All4pack Emballage Paris reveals on a representative sample of 1,001 people.. The study nevertheless shows the evolution of mentalities on the question : the difference is clear between the opinion of seniors who, at 66%, consider the packaging useful and only 22% of 18-24 year olds share this opinion. The study also shows that a third of French people favored purchasing products with less packaging before the health crisis.. A solid trend since, in this third, 60% continued to do so during and despite the health crisis. The results of the survey also indicate that a majority of French people (61 %) considers that manufacturers are not making enough effort to design sustainable packaging. For industrial manufacturers and users of packaging, this result above all reflects “consumer uncertainty, that is to say their lack of information on the actions of suppliers and companies using packaging”.
