It's all in the wrapping: The complicated gift of sustainable packaging

Packaging can have a bad rap in some sustainability circles. But let’s never lose sight of what that package excels in: minimizing food waste and maintaining food safety. That’s pretty Earth-friendly.

As director of sustainability at the International Fresh Produce Association, Tamara Muruetagoiena will be the first to tell you that trying to make your produce packaging more sustainable is complicated. The solutions and ripple effects are as layered as an onion.

But the demand for improvement is there.

“Consumers, for the most part, they are really uncomfortable with packaging, especially plastic,” she said. “Plastic has become this horror in our lives, killing the turtles and polluting our waters. We don’t know what to do with it, and it’s everywhere.”

Suppliers’ and retailers’ sustainable packaging efforts — flawed or not — need to be viewed with perspective.

After all, the United Nations defined sustainability as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

Then there’s the argument that shoppers don’t do what they say they want in surveys.

When consumer shopping habits don’t align with their values, Muruetagoiena thinks it’s because there aren’t many options. It’s not easy. Our industry has historically been very plastic-centric for primary packaging, the type that ends up in the consumer’s hands.

Innovations

In response, companies are putting a lot of time and effort into creating more sustainable packaging, with varying degrees of incremental success. Innovations include:

• Moving away from plastic.
• Using less plastic.
• Using less packaging as a whole.
• Making plastic more recyclable.
• Increasing the recycled content of that plastic.
• Creating home or industrial compostable plastic products.

Consumers rank the produce industry No. 1 as it relates to the importance of sustainability, said Laura Himes, senior merchandising director of produce at Walmart. “And they’re most concerned about water and energy conservation, healthy soils, waste and recyclability,” Himes said. “This creates an opportunity to further strengthen how we are viewed by consumers as they are demanding that we take action.”

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, companies halted a lot of recycling, composting and reusing. Now they’re at it again, searching for the most sustainable, food-safe, shelf-life-preserving, cost-effective packaging possible.

“With packaging, the thing is trying to figure out what consumers want after COVID-19. Are we going back?” asked Meghan Diaz, director of local and regional on the East Coast for Sprouts Farmers Market. The retailer has more than 380 stores in 23 states.

“You’re balancing customer needs, sustainability, product quality, shelf life; It’s like this massive equation that I don’t think we, industrywide, have an answer to,” she said.

More companies are trying the compostable strategy.

Freshfields Farm, a grocery retailer with two Florida locations and a third on the way, tried to offer more compostable packaging, but it hasn’t done well, said Earl McGrath, produce director.

“But we’re open to trying. It doesn’t have the durability, but I know they’re getting better and better. With berries, it’s really tough. We’re always tinkering with it.”

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Cardboard is gaining traction. But because produce is so perishable, shoppers want to see it, so the cardboard needs to have a window, which can present another problem with window hardware.

Even the PLU sticker is considered packaging. Some countries in the European Union are requiring that sticker to be compostable. “It’s a huge deal, and I’ve heard a number of our companies are developing the technology to make those stickers compostable, so there’s a trend toward that,” Muruetagoiena said.

People may complain about those stickers, but with them, no other packaging is needed, she said.

Regardless of the package size, with composting, it’s almost a Catch-22: Materials that take a long, long time to decompose also perform really well in preserving food.

Cardboard can’t be recycled if food is on it when it arrives at a recycling facility, it. On the other hand, it’s made from a renewable fiber from trees.

Some salad companies are in compostable plastic bags.

“There’s a price premium for them to absorb for those plastic bags, so consumers will have to be aware of that, and that’s the hard part,” Muruetagoiena said.

My Local Leaf’s salad clamshells are 100% plastic-free, commercially compostable, which averages about 25 cents more per container than recycled PET and even more than regular PET, said Steve Jones, president of Local Leaf Farms, Barrie, Ontario.

“We incorporate a portion of this into our pricing, assuming a lower margin to provide a superior sustainable product. Our retailers provide no support and attach their standard margin — pricing us proportionally higher than the competition,” Jones said. “We would, of course, love to see our retail partners participate in sharing some of the cost, given the tremendous amount of public-facing communications around seeking sustainability in their operations.”

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And then there are those plastic containers with thin, peelable film tops, which can reduce the amount of plastic by 30%. But that’s not a black or white, yes or no answer to sustainability either, as that peel top is often not recyclable, whereas the harder plastic is.

“The challenges are immense. It is not for lack of trying in our industry, I have to say,” Muruetagoiena said.

The fractured recycling system

Fragile produce that requires harder packaging, such as berries, may appear like the most unsustainable packaging because it’s bulky, firm plastic. But it’s usually PET plastic, which is made of a resin that’s highly recyclable.

Is it recycled, though, and recycled correctly? Well, only 8% is, Muruetagoiena said. “There are a million reasons why that happens,” she said.

First, consumers may not dispose of it right. They might not clean it well. Or, once it’s placed in the right bin and it’s clean, it’s taken to a distribution center, where the materials are sorted. Many companies aren't buying the material because of lacking technology to recycle it. Some companies’ technology doesn’t allow for stickers on that PET. And some companies do have that advanced technology. And municipalities collect recycling from consumers in different ways.

“So that’s where it gets really hairy,” Muruetagoiena said.

And further, some of this packaging used to go to China, Vietnam or other countries to be recycled, but in the last two years, those countries no longer want to do it, so the plastic goes in a U.S. landfill.

At this point, polymer plastic bags — which aren’t very recyclable but contain less plastic — may seem like a lesser harm to the Earth.

“So, yes, there's trouble with plastic and packaging, but it is also minimizing food waste, and it’s also feeding a lot of people,” she said. “It’s allowing healthy fruits and vegetables to reach so many citizens in a country where it's so big, with different climates. All of that is a lot to ask of packaging.”

Innovations in sustainable packaging have a steep learning curve, such as some biodegradable plastic packages that sat melting in a 100-degree Fahrenheit field during pilot testing.

These containers must withstand high temperatures, low temperatures, intense ultraviolet radiation from the sun, low radiation inside a truck and many days moving from one place to another.

What about fresh-cut produce?

Fresh-cut is having its heyday, and there’s no way that’s going package-free. Used in the fresh-cut produce sector for the last 20 years, modified atmosphere packaging, or MAP, can optimize shelf life, quality and convenience, which furthers its economic and safe global distribution.

But what is it, specifically? MAP is when the internal atmosphere of a package is something other than ambient atmosphere, Jeff Brandenburg said in his January 2022 white paper for IFPA. He’s president of The JSB Group, a consulting company specializing in packaging design, post-harvest technology and food regulations.

MAP for fresh produce is more complex than other food packaging markets because the produce continues to respire, consuming oxygen and giving off carbon dioxide.Other segments of the supply chain, from field-packs to whole produce for both foodservice and retail, are all now being evaluated and developed for MAP applications.

“Sustainability is one of the most active areas in package design, not only from a technical perspective, but a marketing and merchandizing perspective as well,” Brandenburg said.

When evaluating a package design’s compostable and degradable technologies, ask the supplier to provide quantitative evidence of efficacy and under what specific conditions of use, he said. Recycling many current produce MAP packages is tricky because the packages are blended polymer packaging and must be given a 7 recycle code. PET and PP rigid trays are exceptions. But experts say a holistic view is necessary. After all, the Flexible Packaging Association’s motto is “Less Waste in the First Place.”

Takeaways

Don’t get bogged down by the complexity of sustainability. Just try, Muruetagoiena said. Reach out for help. The industry needs more public and private investment in innovation research.

And more synergetic relationships between retailers and suppliers can push this mission along faster. Retailers can tell consumers more about the sustainability efforts of the suppliers because of more direct access — especially when the suppliers are not branded.

The My Local Leaf brand of salad greens calls attention to its 100% plastic-free, certified 90-day commercially compostable packaging both right on the label, as well as on the store’s data strips and shelf tags. “The best means, however, has been in-store demos,” said Jones of Local Leaf Farms. “Customers ‘can’t believe’ it’s not plastic and very frequently buy on that value attribute alone.”

Like Muruetagoiena, Jones has a broader wish for more public policy — and funding — to enable a rapid expansion of commercial composting capabilities. He’d love to collaborate more with retailers to show them how much the consumer wants these packaging options and figure out a partnership around procurement and lowering costs.

First, though, it’s about doing what you can.

“We have to applaud every single effort from everyone, even if it's not ideal,” Muruetagoiena said. “Even if, yes, it’s less plastic, but it’s not recyclable. They tried, they worked at it, they are moving the needle, and that’s what we need. We need those efforts. They are so important.”