Realistically products still need to be packaged for marketing purposes, protection and transportation.  Retailers can help ease the dilemma faced by manufacturers and customers by suggesting alternatives, giving clear feedback and offering advice.  All too often products are bought, delivered and then chiselled frantically from over indulgent layers of cardboard, polystyrene and impossible holding tags, tape and metal or plastic bindings. Inevitably this ends up in space-limited landfill or sometimes in the recycling system. 

So how about using less? A reduction in conventional packaging would help us all. 

Most products that parents purchase seem to come trussed up in unnecessary paraphernalia often with no regard to whether it is really needed or not.  Do baby products need such complicated fastening features on their toys for instance? 

Certainly for over-tired, time-limited parents the task of freeing these objects sometimes requires extensive knowledge of tricky engineering techniques. This unwanted excess is prevalent with even everyday robust items from nappies to cots, changing mats to prams.  A simple approach of reduction would certainly be a cost saving way forward, but also a clever greening-up marketing tool to heighten company image. Obviously popping items into a paper bag may not be immediately desirable, but most savvy parents would prefer their precious infant to be safe from the whiff of plastic fumes when exposed to new all products.

There are of course leading manufacturer case studies which give fresh ideas already being piloted in the food industry.  As part of the Soil Association licensing agreement, three top companies have simplified their approaches;  Duchy Originals has already reduced the amount of cardboard used in their biscuit cartons;  Green & Black's have re-thought their hot chocolate jar, analysing whether they could use a lighter one;  Sheepdrove Organic Farm has reduced the amount of packaging used in their mail order meat boxes.

 Added to this reduction approach is the use of new materials instead of the now dreaded plastic bag. A commonly found biodegradable alternative to this has been packaging made from corn starch, seen more and more in supermarkets.  Nothing is ever simple though and we are starting to see reports that these are made from Genetically Modified corn, which obviously carries very contentious environmental concerns.

Unlike other countries in the EU, the UK is also lacking in commercial scale composting facilities required for these biodegradable bags.  The anaerobic conditions in UK landfills don't promote the natural decomposition of these products and they can also  contaminate other plastics if recycled rather than composted.  Aside from this, another controversial point is whether growing food crops for packaging is using land that would otherwise feed the local population.  However, when properly researched, and local community economics considered, food crops can sometimes be successfully and responsibly used as an alternative to plastic.

A company very much in tune with looking after people and the environment, all the way through the production chain is one very close to my heart. Frugi is an organic children's clothing company which I co-founded four years ago in the South West of England. 

After three years of searching, I discovered an alternative to poly bags to protect the clothing in transit.  I visited the factory that make a packaging film using non-GM potato starch, from potatoes grown nearby.  Incredibly you can dissolve the raw film in water and actually drink it.  The bags themselves can then compost with other household waste in three to four months.  Frugi has pioneered this method within the clothing industry and continues the theme through by using paper potato sacks for delivery in the post. It's been really popular with our customers and means that we have simplified our packaging, removing the need for plastic altogether, so now all of it can be composted.

The shelf life may be more limited with these bags, but it does make us analyse stock control and warehouse storage even more rigorously as a result.  As Frugi holds stock for customers anyway we can monitor closely and be at the centre of quality control. It has cost Frugi to invest in this method as each bag has a significantly increased price, but with a fervent interest in striving to run an ever greener successful business the outcomes for the brand have been incredibly positive. 

This month Frugi won ‘Best Innovation o f the Year' at the Cornwall Business Awards for these packaging methods.  In fact, as an ethical business Frugi has been providing contact details of the manufacturer to many other interested companies.

Analysing and changing the type of packaging used such as in the amount and type of  ink used, reducing the weight of cardboard, simplification in the amount of folds, flaps and extra headroom within boxes, all offer cost savings. But more than that, these give marketing hooks and a generally prouder focus on the value for money of the product itself, which in turn provides customers with a more honest and, you would hope, a more appreciated product.  There is a sense of ‘back to basics' -  the product is the thing!

WRAP (at http://www.wrap.org/) is the Government agency born to help businesses reduce the amount of packaging in their products. One success has been where they have worked closely with companies such as B&Q to reduce the thousands of tonnes of transit packaging disposed of in the UK each year.  B&Q now use re-usable transit ‘bags' to transport their kitchen worktops, and other companies are doing similar things with sofas.  These reusable systems offer significant business and environmental benefits compared with single-trip packaging.  B&Q has ordered over 5,000 bags and estimates that each bag is used 15 times saving the retailer £300,000 a year in packaging costs alone.  Could this extend to nursery items like cots and prams perhaps? 

A ‘less is more' approach is generally favourable for all.  In environmental terms no packaging at all would be best, but necessity prevails. The search for and use of creative alternatives are preferable to conventional packaging methods.

Nursery retailers are perfectly positioned to enter into dialogue with suppliers to feed back comments and ideas from customers. Most manufacturers will welcome such constructive criticism.  It is worth remembering that excessive packaging is now a firm ‘turn off' to an ever increasing proportion of new parents.

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