‘Packaging - Practical Tips and Legislation‘

24th September 2009

Holiday Inn, Telford

With current legislation and a strong focus in the media, packag-

ing is becoming an increasingly important issue to all businesses
and is costing a lot of money each year. This event was sup-
ported by Envirowise and looked at the main issues surrounding
packaging, the key areas to think about and the legal obligations
of businesses.

Packaging - Practical Tips,

Mark Shayler Envirowise

Mark Shayler representing Envirowise opened the event giving an overview of

packaging and resource efficiency. He began by covering some of the drivers for
businesses to reduce their packaging giving them improved business efficiency,
significant cost savings, increased sales and enhanced brand awareness. Bearing
these drivers in mind he then moved on to look at the core strategies of packaging
reduction and what they mean to businesses. He finished with some examples of
what some well known companies have done to reduce their packaging and the
benefits this has led to. Mark made a dry subject fascinating, and was inspirational
to those listening.

Lyreco Case Study, Julie England

Julie presented to the group about the challenge from Lyreco group to reduce glue use across the packaging of
their products. Julie detailed the modifications undertaken by one of their Engineers highlighted a potential financial
and environmental saving for the business. This small measure has made a 50% saving on glue cost since
February 2009, with further reduction on packaging regulation obligations and costs yet to be confirmed. This
presentation gave delegates an example of how using the expertise within your organisation and looking at your
packaging from a different perspective can highlight small changes to make financial savings and reduce your
legislative requirements.

Legislation

Mark Shayler then returned to the floor to give an overview of the

packaging legislation. He spoke about the drivers for the legislation,
who it relates to and the obligations for those businesses affected.
Mark also conveyed the importance for compliance from businesses
as the fines for non-compliance have and are increasing. He brought it
home to attendees by revealing that the second highest fine recorded
was given to a Telford based company in 2007.

www.telfordbesst.co.uk
 www.telfordbesst.co.uk

Workshop

The second part of the event was a practical workshop looking at

the Heroes and Villains of packaging.
Attendees were divided into 8 groups and were each given a selec-
tion of products and different packaging. They were tasked to iden-
tify the examples of good and bad packaging by looking at the be-
low questions;
• Is the product over packaged?
• What materials are used?
• Are they separable?
• Are they reusable or recyclable?
Each group then fed back to the other attendees their findings and
reasons for selecting their Hero and Villain.

This workshop enabled delegates to think about the purpose of

packaging for different products and share ideas with other
attendees. From this workshop a Top Tips Guide has been
produced and can be found in the download library on the website Packaging Top Tips
for members.
• Use the Waste Hierarchy – Eliminate,
Reduce, Re-use, Recycle
What did the attendees say….. • Understand what role the packaging
performs
‘Format is practical and excellent exercises engaging group • Use recyclable materials
members about the subject.’ • Work with suppliers and customers
• Use returnable packaging
‘Excellent event - one of the best yet! Thank you’ • Ensure you understand and meet
packaging regulations where
‘Very interesting and enjoyable event!’ appropriate
• Communicate to the whole company
• Use your business neighbours

Some useful points of reference for reducing packaging are;

Envirowise—Packaging Resource Efficiency

Envirowise has some useful tools including Packaging Online Tool which
simplifies this task of measuring the overall environmental impact of a
packaging system by allowing you to assess packaging and also compare
different packaging options using a small number of pre-defined environmental
parameters. There are also a number of useful publications available for
download.

WRAP—Evolving Packaging Design.

Useful information in regards to the Law, Brand Design and Innovation,
Consumer Views and Tools and Techniques. There is also a useful document
you can download all about material considerations.

For more information please visit

www.telfordbesst.co.uk or call 01952 567567