Purpose
An innovative program to foster an improved understanding of the drivers for packaging development and demand by generating packaging data and key values
*) on an ongoing basis correlated with relevant social data.
The program will support the continuous environmental improvement of packaging thereby helping maximise resource efficiency and demonstrate the broader contribution of packaging to the sustainable use of resources.
Background
Today's changing demographics, social trends and international trade are causing changes in the type of packaging necessary to meet consumer expectations and demand (ready-food, convenience etc.) as well as the interests of other stakeholders. As a consequence packaging issues are very complex and involve economic, social and environmental as well as product safety aspects.To help better understand the drivers and their consequences the ESB program will create a unique tool and methodology using selected packaging key-values applicable to the packaging of the most commonly used products across the EU.
Objectives
The ESB program will provide packaging key values on a country by country basis which will be calculated at fixed time intervals. These key values together with knowledge of relevant national social data will then allow trends in packaging key values to be correlated against social drivers per country. The program will provide valuable knowledge to support the goals of the 6th EAP (Thematic Strategy on the Sustainable Use of Natural Resources, the Thematic Strategy on Prevention and Recycling of Waste and Integrated Product Policy). It will also help identify more cost effective packaging systems as part of industry’s quest for more efficient supply chain management.
Outcome
The outcome of the programme over a period of time will:
- Demonstrate the interrelationship between packaging system components and show how differences between countries influence packaging development
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- Illustrate the complexity of meeting the various and often conflicting demands placed on packaging systems
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- Provide insights into Industry's efforts to balance consumer needs and wishes for more functional packaging with environmental and economic demands thereby laying a better informed ground for future debate on how efforts to support Sustainable Development might best be applied
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- Create a platform for fact based stakeholder dialogue
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- Offer a qualitative and quantitative aid to the development of future packaging and packaging waste policy Management
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- Permit participating companies to bench-mark their own packaging with a European average
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The ESB program is a joint undertaking of EUROPEN aisbl - the European Organisation for Packaging and the Environment - and STFI-Packforsk AB - the packaging research institute in Sweden.
The following structure has been established to develop and manage the program:
Management Committee
A Management Committee (MC) composed of two representatives each from EUROPEN and STFI-Packforsk will manage the program on a day to day basis. Members of the MC are:
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Julian Carroll |
EUROPEN |
|
Steve Anderson |
EUROPEN |
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Kennert Johansson |
STFI Packforsk |
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Beatrice Johansson |
STFI Packforsk |
Technical Working Group (TWG)
The technical working group will be composed of representatives of EUROPEN member companies who have committed to partner status of financial support in the Program. The TWG will be used to help decide aspects of a technical nature and will also function as a Steering Group for partner companies.
Stakeholder Committee (SC)
As indicated in the above outcome, an important potential benefit of the project is the creation of a platform for fact based stakeholder dialogue. For this reason a Stakeholder Committee has been proposed. Representatives from the European Commission, the European Environment Agency (EEA), the Packaging Recovery Organisation Europe (Pro Europe) and consumer and environmental NGOs have been invited to participate in this Committee.
National Co-ordinator (NC)
The ESB program in each country will rely on a National Co-ordinator to help liaison with product manufacturers’ national institutions, collect data, critically review its quality, help with national data interpretation etc. It is seen as a key role to the success of the program and thus the Co-ordinators will be carefully selected and their work clearly defined.
Methodology
The ESB program is preceded by The Swedish Shopping Basket project where primary-, secondary- and tertiary packaging was studied over the period 1993-2000 and Swedish packaging development predicted by using different key-values. The ESB program tool will draw on this Swedish experience and will record packaging development across a representative number of European Union countries.
It has been concluded that the minimum number of countries necessary to provide meaningful results is five, provided they are carefully selected to cover the spread in population density, GDP, spending power, geography, culture etc. Following this analysis the countries shown in the table below have been selected.
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Country |
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Estonia |
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Finland |
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Italy |
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Poland |
| UK |
The possibility exists to extend the program to cover all 25 EU Member States and to repeat / continue the project on an ongoing biennial basis (additional funding, to cover costs of extending the program, is the chief necessity. Any party interested in extending the program is invited to submit proposals to the Management Committee).
Initially, it is intended to collect packaging data twice over a three year period, defining the packaging status as of 31 December 2005 and 31 December 2007. The shopping basket for each country will contain about 100 products. Typically there will be three levels of packaging associated with each product, covering primary, secondary and tertiary packaging levels. A minimum of 5 packaging key values will be calculated per product set. These packaging key values should mirror packaging/products that a household typically brings home from the shop over a specified year across the EU. A robust statistical database will thus be generated per country and the ESB database in total will permit statistical comparisons between countries.
The following are the main activities which will be carried out:
| 1. |
Agree packaging key values to be calculated and social data to be collected |
| 2. |
Develop a SQL European Shopping Basket database |
| 3. |
Identify and agree National Co-ordinators |
| 4. |
Select the 100 most common products in each country |
| 5. |
Collect social data and data for the packaging used for the products selected in each country |
| 6. |
Calculate packaging key-values, averages, sum-ups etc |
| 7. |
Analyse the results identifying trends, especially the connection between packaging key-values and social data. |
| 8. |
Dissemination of findings |
Funding
The program will initially be funded through contributions from EUROPEN and STFI Packforsk, individual EUROPEN members (partners and co-financiers) and supporter organizations. Partners and co-financiers include many of Europe’s largest packaged goods companies, packaging makers and packaging material suppliers.
Additional funding from both European and national institutions that have an interest in the outcome of the program is being sought and will be welcomed. This would allow expansion of the number of countries examined and also permit continuation of the programme beyond five countries and for a longer period.
Expected results
- A record of packaging developments in the individual shopping baskets for the selected European Countries between 2005 and 2007 with respect to the amount of packaging, type of packaging, material, volume efficiency in transport etc. using various packaging data and key-values. This will provide a comprehensive picture of the often complex changes within the packaging sector
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- An analysis of the difference in use of packaging between European countries and a connection of these differences to demography, consumption patterns, infrastructure etc. in the country
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- Increased knowledge about packaging material and types of packaging used in Europe to facilitate improved handling and recycling of the materials and ultimately a lowering of the environmental impact of waste arising
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- An improvement in the quality of packaging consumption data presently available to decision makers
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- Documentation of industry efforts to match packaging use (Essential Requirements of the Directive) with environmental targets, consumer needs and wishes for more sophisticated and functional packaging
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- Identification of where efforts are best applied in the packaging sector to support sustainable development.
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*) Packaging key values will be calculated from packaging data to be collected by the program.