Everyone who participates in the modern economy understands that packaging needs to be improved, right?
Honestly, I get frustrated when it takes 10 minutes to get a kid’s toy out of the package. After extraction, I have the pleasure of scrutinizing every component to see if it’s recyclable (note: If I have to examine, it’s usually not recyclable). I don’t even want to think about what the average consumer does with toy packaging. I’m sure it’s horrifying.
While packaging accounts for only a slice of total carbon emissions, there is an acknowledgement within the sector that packaging can have indirect carbon impacts in other sectors and that steps can be taken to decrease the impact further. Peter Spiller, partner at McKinsey, and Ruth Maust, project manager at GreenBlue, addressed these impacts in their decarbonization session. They discussed actions packaging players can take to better serve their customers and how innovation in packaging can help cut greenhouse gas emissions from a number of sectors. They also touched on how reducing packaging waste and use of smart packaging can reduce the impacts of the sector.
