Organic Packages for Organic Ingredients

In search of the most sustainable packaging

By Angela West

The growth in popularity of organic foods and natural products has resulted in a considerable level of new product development over a short period of time. As noticed during industry trade shows, the manner in which organic, nutritious and fair trade goods are packaged and presented to a growing consumer market demanding them, is frequently overlooked. Nutrition, environmental concerns, marketability and logistics are all factors that directly influence the choice of packaging substrate and design. Which are the most unique, convenient, eco-friendly and safe packaging solutions? Which are the best materials? Could it be PET or bio-plastics? Or is it glass or metal?

This is the second of a series (started with the O.W.N. Summer 2009 digital edition available at www.organicwellnessnews.com) on packaging alternatives that fit the values of the green movement. We asked industry players about their choices. Here are some of their replies.

In Canada Harmony Organic opts for traditional glass shaped bottle

Harmony Organic Dairy Products Inc. is a medium sized organic certified enterprise owned and operated in Ontario since 2001 by organic dairy farmers Lawrence Andres and Ross Wilhelm. Although market demand has forced the dairy to also offer its milk and cream products in recyclable cartons and 4 liter bags, the most discerning consumers still prefer to buy their milk in reusable attractive old fashioned shaped glass bottles. The reason? Taste!, says marketing director Robert Kuenzlen. “Anyone who has tasted milk from a glass bottle can attest, milk packaged in plastics and cartons doesn’t compare on taste at all.”

Harmony Dairy wanted the old school milk bottle with the square neck that older folks remember being delivered to their doorstep every day. Produced by packaging giant, Stanpac, the same bottle is also being used by other non-organic dairies in North America. Their goal was not to design a special bottle for the company, but to use what was already available as both a cost saver and out of consideration for the environment.

Harmony retailers charge a high (one to two dollar) deposit for the glass bottle, with a 60% to 70% return rate. One of the challenges to their rate of return is that consumers keep the bottles as keepsakes or for other uses. Harmony Dairy uses hydrogen peroxide rather than chlorine to clean and sanitize their bottles when they get them back. The lids used are No.5 plastic which can be recycled, and they are bi-phenol-A (BPA) free.

Sales of the glass-packaged milk grew last year by almost 30%, a direct response to the increased consumer call for glass. Despite the success of the program, initial implementation and reverse logistics were the biggest challenges for Harmony Dairy. It required a commitment from their vendors to donate space to the program for sometimes dirty or unwashed bottles. Another big challenge was the weight; shipping costs increased dramatically, with new charges for returned bottles and increased charges for the initial shipment.

But once all of the logistics were in place, the operation ran smoothly, according to Kuenzlen. Based on the results, Harmony Dairy gives its glass packaging program a big thumbs up, and will keep it up in the years to come.

In Brazil Canaspirit goes eco-friendly beyond the ingredients

Formerly Cachaca Canaa, this artesanal producer of cachaca, one of Brazil’s best-loved alcoholic drinks, believes in the process of thinking about the environment in every facet of the product life cycle. Cachaca is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented sugar cane juice. Canaspirit started producing premium organic certified cachaca in late 2007 and produces around 50,000 litres in a year, so they do end up using a fair number of glass bottles.

The packaging as well as its content was an important part of Canaspirit’s environmental philosophy, according to marketing director Isabel Calil. “We were concerned not only about making a nice and good looking bottle that people would like and keep in their bars, but also the way this bottle would be produced”, she says.

Canaspirit produces its own bottles with several more eco-friendly methods than you would find at a conventional glass production facility in Brazil. One of these is in the way that it handles sandblasting, the process by which the glass is made translucent. The abrasive material used in this process is aluminum oxide which is not harmful to the environment. The equipment is automated with filters and an internal vacuum does not allow dust to get into the air during the sandblasting process. The aluminum oxide, which is already an existing mineral in the soil, is returned to the environment as soil fertilizer once the process is complete.

Canaspirit was careful to avoid any chemical processes for the etching of the bottles as they didn’t want to soak them in harmful chemicals such as sulfuric acid, fluoride or chloride , which is the common practice. Some of these processes have been banned around the world for being highly harmful to the environment and the health of the operators who run the equipment.”We want our product to be appreciated for the care that has been taken in its production from the soil to the end product”, says Calil.

In the United States Steaz offers glass bottles and metal cans

Steaz, a division of The Healthy Beverage Company, was launched in 2003 by entrepreneurs Eric Schnell and Steven Kessler in Newton PA. They were a small two-man shop with one purpose in mind: take the evil out of the soft drink business. Schnell told O.W.N. that “plastic was not even considered to be an option”, when they started their business. They use glass for their organic soft drink and sparkling tea products not only because it is recyclable, but also because carbonation in plastic can have adverse effects on the quality of the drink. Plastic also means a shorter shelf life for the drinks than glass. The bottles are decorated with high gloss, wet strength conventional paper labels, while the cartons and all marketing material are printed with soy-based inks. By the end of this fiscal year, Steaz will have sold 200,000 cases of their glass-packaged products, with 24 bottles to a case, removing almost five million bottles from the plastic waste stream.

All Steaz beverages are certified organic and Fair Trade Certified. In the United States Steaz is sold at retail outlets such as Whole Foods Market, Publix, Wegmans, Safewayand Shaw’s supermarkets. Steaz is also distributed in Canada and Mexico, the Netherlands, Australia, India, Singapore South Africa and the Middle East.

Steaz offers its organic fair trade iced tea and energy drinks in 16 ounce recyclable BPA-free aluminum cans. The cans were specially designed to handle their formula, co-founder Schnell told O.W.N. The can manufacturer worked with their ingredients and the inside of the can holds up with a non-toxic, organic lining. The process produces a harder can which is able to stand up to heat. The can goes through a tunnel where it is baked for 15 minutes to harden it. Acid levels will not erode the can itself due to the protective lining in place.

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a common component of food containers and baby bottles. It has been suspected of being hazardous to humans since the 1930s, but only in the past couple of years have governments started to question its safety. Studies suggest BPA is an endocrine disruptor able to mimic the body’s key steroid hormone estradiol. BPA has been linked to several health disorders from diabetes Type 2 and obesity, to breast and prostate cancer and negative effects on the development of the brain, behavior, and prostate gland in healthy fetuses.

US organic pioneer Eden Foods ahead of the pack

In spite of the concerns about BPA based on studies conducted over the past fifty years and the media awareness of the last two years, finding a can company able to offer a BPA-free lining was not an easy task for Michael Potter, president of Eden Foods, who went out over ten years ago in search of the can company that would offer his products a safer alternative to BPA. Only one supplier at the time, Ball, could fulfill his request offering a lining based on a vegetable resin. It meant a higher production cost, since they were made just to meet Eden Foods requirements, but the effort was worth it. Ball is still a can manufacturer that offers a safe BPA-free process, and Potter suggests that any company looking to duplicate their efforts contact Ball to get started. “The process is 14% more expensive than producing a conventional can, but we wouldn’t have considered any other option,” says Potter.

Eden Foods, the largest privately owned organic pioneer in the United States has been using BPA-free for a decade, except in the cans for tomato products, where there is no approved alternative yet. Now that consumers are more aware of the safety concerns, Eden Foods are among the first food companies to label its canned products “BPA-free.” Eden Foods was recently selected the No. 1 food company in the world and No.3 best company overall by The Better World Shopping Guide. Michael Potter and his team have proven that if there is the will to become more sustainable, there is always a way.

Vendor solutions

The following programs are managed by vendors and dealers of products rather than the manufacturers themselves.

PatchBerry Farms and Pine Hedge Yogurt shows a 97% return rate

Canadian PatchBerry Farms has been selling Pine Hedge Yogurt and Harmony Organics milk at an organic farmers market stall in Ottawa and through home delivery PatchBerry has a return rate on its bottles of 97% on the milk from Harmony and credits the success of the program mostly to the deposit. PatchBerry has a 2.00 deposit on its milk bottles and a 1.00 deposit on its yogurt bottles. This financial incentive is enough to guarantee that almost every customer returns their bottles; that and the fact that PatchBerry collects them through its home delivery service can’t hurt either. People are only bringing back the bottles when they are buying their products through the organic farmers market. Pine Hedge Yogurt, who sells through other vendors in addition to PatchBerry, has a 75 to 80% return rate on its yogurt jars. They reuse all of the jars that they get back. The owner, Josef Heinzle, estimates that they cannot reuse only 1% of the jars.

PatchBerry Farms also adds that if consumers are to purchase glass, they should rinse out the bottles prior to return in order to assist the logistics in running a bit more smoothly. This would hold especially true for a store; if a bottle return facility is something that could be cited by a health inspector, the practice won’t last long.

The Holdouts

Most health-conscious shoppers prefer glass for food packaging, a recent survey conducted for the Glass Packaging Institute revealed. Consumers believe glass keeps the true flavor and taste (79.8%) and purity (77.3%) of a food product. Still, Stonyfield Yogurt decided to not go with glass for the reasons that they state on their website:

“Glass, which is widely recycled and made from recycled material, was rejected (as a form of packaging) as the environmental costs of transporting the heavy material outweigh the benefits. The energy (fossil fuels) used over the entire life of the glass package for its manufacture and transport exceeds the energy that goes into the manufacturing and transporting of a plastic container.”

For this large firm, this was a valid decision as they are transporting yogurt, an item traditionally served in small containers, across North America. A smaller-scale dairy, such as Harmony Organics (mentioned above) that is able to recover all of their bottles for reuse may have a different economic view.

When asked why he thought more organic companies were not using glass, Joe Cattaneo, president of The Glass Packaging Institute (GPI) indicated that one of the overriding barriers is the perception that glass is expensive. This is largely a misconception, particularly with heavier products such as liquids. Glass costs no more to ship than plastics with products that are already heavy to start with, and the only concern most suppliers should have is fragility.

A local producer of glass means a reduced, rather than a heightened, carbon footprint, according to Cattaneo. To take this a step further, there are research and development efforts underway by GPI member companies to develop glass that is a thinner wall size with the same strength, thus reducing the shipping weight and limiting material costs.

Bag It Back Program at LCBO and Beer Store

Sales of alcoholic beverages in Canada is done under the individual authority of the ten provinces and three territories. In Ontario sales are done through the governmental agency called the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. The LCBO is the largest single buyer of alcoholic products in the world and has used its position to implement a highly successful reuse and recycling program of its products. Headquartered in Toronto, sales in fiscal 2008-09 were $4.27 billion and the LCBO delivered a $1.40 billion dividend to the Ontario government due to its status as a governmental agency. The dividend helps pay for health care, education, social programs, infrastructure and other important government services.

The Ontario Deposit Return Program (ODRP) or the Bag it Back Program as it is also known, was implemented in 2007 to get back high quality glass containers for reuse in high-value products such as fiberglass. The program charges a ten cent deposit on glass bottles under 630ml and a twenty cent deposit on containers over 630ml. Consumers can return their bottles to any LCBO store, which are present in even the smallest towns of Ontario.

As of July 2009, over a half billion containers (glass bottles, cans and other) had been diverted from landfills as a direct result of the program. 90 percent of the returned glass containers are recycled into higher value products such as new bottles, fiberglass insulation and glazes for ceramic tiles.

The goals of the ODRP when it was introduced were to:
• Allow municipalities to add other materials to their waste diversion programs
• Divert an additional 25,000 to 30,000 tonnes of glass annually from landfills
• Help create new markets for recycled goods
• Strengthen the culture of recycling in Ontario

Since the introduction of the ODRP in February 2007 more than 220,000 tonnes of glass alcohol containers have been diverted from the Blue Box (recycling) program and landfills. The program achieved an overall return rate of 71 per cent at the end of its second year in February 2009 and is continuing to climb. The ORDP is already well on its way to achieving the goal of 85 per cent of program containers sold in Ontario being returned for a refund of deposit.

Summary

Glass packaging and recycling programs run most smoothly with vendor participation. While it is almost a given that sales will increase with glass packaging, it is not certain how a recycling program will play out at the vendor level. Those looking at embarking on such a program would best look to Harmony Dairy for an example, and to get vendor buy-in before implementation to avoid a logistics nightmare. Vendor managed programs, such as the Bag it Back Program at the LCBO, seem to have the highest rate of success, being managed entirely at the vendor level. Across all levels, it would seem that a high deposit guarantees a higher return rate, a lesson any company would do well to implement. These deposit costs could also cover the cost difference of manufacturing a glass package over a plastic package, something manufacturers need to figure in to their bottom-line equation.

For companies in the USA, the Glass Packaging Institute (gpi.org) can help you find incentives for using glass packaging in your State and the European Container Glass Federation (feve.org) in Europe can do the same. Even in the absence of such incentives, the question is worth revisiting at least once a year by your accounting department - how much money can you save by using glass packaging, and how many new sales do you project with glass packaging?

Send Angela West awest@organicwellnessnews.com your sustainable packaging story and we may also feature you in the upcoming editions of Organic & Wellness News and in the O.W.N. e-newsletter!