Flexible packs outshine competition in five e-commerce life cycle analyses

22 Jul 2020 --- The Flexible Packaging Association (FPA) has partnered with PTIS technology management company to produce a report highlighting a holistic view of the environmental sustainability benefits of flexible packaging in the growing e-commerce channel. The Sustainability Life Cycle and Economic Impacts of Flexible Packaging in E-commerce Report concluded that flexible formats demonstrate distinct advantages in reducing dimensional weight, optimizing space and reducing shipping costs relative to viable alternatives. Five different Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) case studies were developed using the EcoImpact-COMPASS streamlined LCA software, which allows for quick life cycle comparisons between different package formats and included shoes, cereal, peanut butter, laundry detergent and flat mailers.

FPA describes itself as the voice of the US manufacturers of flexible packaging and their suppliers. The association’s mission is “connecting, advancing and leading the flexible packaging industry.” According to FPA, flexible packaging represents over US$33 billion in annual sales in the US and is the second largest, and one of the fastest growing segments of the packaging industry. Flexible packaging is produced from paper, plastic, film, aluminum foil, or any combination of those materials, and includes bags, pouches, labels, liners, wraps, and rollstock.

E-commerce is a growing economic segment and as more products are shipped via e-commerce, brands continue to look for ways to optimize the shipping, reduce costs and reduce environmental impact, while offering consumers a positive experience and product protection. According to FPA/PTIS, more brands are using flexible packaging as either the primary package due to its ability to withstand robust handling and limit leaks or as the e-commerce delivery pack itself as a way to reduce the amount of packaging material and space utilized.

Preferable environmental attributes
The five LCA case studies assessed all primary, secondary and tertiary packaging, including dunnage from the packages. Dunnage is a filler that is used to prevent a product from shifting during shipping, resulting in product damage. Dunnage may be either paper or plastic-based, and includes crumpled paper, corrugated inserts, air pillows and bubble wrap.Flexible packaging is often robust, helping to reduce leaks or package breaks.

Additionally, the product-to-package ratio, as well as the amount of packaging that is landfilled for 1,000 kg of each product, was determined. The amount of packaging landfilled was based on the recycling rates for each material while assuming none of the flexible packages were recycled. However, most flexible packaging used in e-commerce applications, including bubble dunnage or poly mailers, are made of LDPE, which can be recycled with grocery bags and other films as part of the grocery store drop-off program, FPA/PTIS points out. These materials can qualify for the How2Recycle store drop off designation if they go through the certification process.

The results from many of the case studies showed that flexible packaging has more preferable environmental attributes for carbon impact, fossil fuel usage, water usage, as well as material disposed of when compared to other package formats. This is due to the efficient use of resources enabled by flexible packaging, FPA/PTIS indicates.

An additional benefit of flexible packaging includes the robust nature of the material, which can help reduce leaks or package breaks, thus significantly improving consumer enjoyment of a product (and brand). This is important in an e-commerce environment where a product is handled at least three times as often as is done within a traditional retail channel.

Peanut butter pouch prevails
For this LCA study, three separate e-commerce packaging scenarios were evaluated. Two of the scenarios involve peanut butter in a pouch with fitment. In one of the e-commerce deliveries, the pouch arrived in a small corrugated box as the shipping unit. In the other, that corrugated box was then placed into an additional corrugated overbox for delivery. Both pouch with fitment scenarios were included as they were ordered from different retailers and arrived in different e-commerce packaging. The final scenario included peanut butter in a PET jar, which arrived in a corrugated e-commerce case.As e-commerce continues its growth, brands are working to reduce shipping and environmental costs.

When considering the amount of material discarded in landfill, the stand-up pouch with fitment resulted in the least amount of material not recovered by a wide margin (41,910 g vs. 54,113 g for the PET jar). Even though the pouch with fitment is not currently recyclable due to its multi-material construction, it weighs much less than the other options, including the PET jar, and is a good example of source reduction, FPA/PTIS says.

The pouch with fitment also showed the lowest or nearly lowest energy usage, greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions and water use when compared to the other packs. In all of the peanut butter scenarios reviewed, the primary packs were made from materials that can limit damage and leakage, an important consideration in e-commerce packaging.

The primary flexible stand-up pouch with fitment pack would likely have “very little if any damage in an e-commerce environment, while there would be some opportunity for denting but likely little in terms of product leakage from the PET jar,” according to the report.

Stand up for cereal pouches
This scenario looked at two different primary package formats for cereal: a stand-up pouch and a traditional bag-in-box. Both options came packed as a 6-pack in a corrugated box. The bag-in-box option, however, also came with an additional overbox, meaning an additional scenario was run for the bag-in-box cereal, but without the additional overbox, in the event that the shipping case could undergo certification for the Amazon Ship In Own Case (SIOC) program, which eliminates the need for overboxing, by certifying that the initial case can withstand the e-commerce distribution cycle as it is.

The results showed that the stand-up pouch in cereal with pouches nested in the shipping case results in a large reduction in environmental impacts across several key attributes compared to the bag-in-box system, including fossil fuel used, GHG emissions, water use and material discarded when compared to the bag-in-box carton system in an e-commerce application. The results are driven by the stand-up pouch using anywhere from one-quarter to one-half of the materials as the other options, while still offering “excellent” product protection and consumer convenience features, such as a press-to-close zipper system.Flexible packaging generates over US$33 billion US sales annually, says FPA.

Laundry detergent’s flexible lift
Laundry detergent is a product that is available across a wide range of product formats, including both concentrated liquids and pods as well as package formats. For this evaluation, five popular formats were evaluated. An additional evaluation was conducted for laundry pods in a flexible pouch, which arrived in an overbox, but likely can be shipped without the overbox.

The results of the laundry detergent e-commerce case study indicated that while there are several different formats that use multilayer flexible packaging as the primary package to contain either liquid detergent or pods, they are well suited to use in an e-commerce environment. Whether a flexible pouch with fitment or bag-in-box for liquid detergent, or a stand-up pouch containing pods, the flexible-based options often had several sustainability benefits when compared to primary packages using a rigid format. These benefits included reduced fossil fuel usage, carbon impact, water usage, and municipal solid waste over the rigid container options in this e-commerce scenario, even when taking the current recycling rate of the rigid container into consideration.

In other flexible packaging news, CEFLEX, the European consortium of companies representing the flexible packaging value chain, and UK sustainability non-profit WRAP, both recently published new guidance on establishing effective recycling systems for flexible packaging. WRAP warns that urgent cross-sector action is required to meet the UK Plastics Pact target to make all plastic packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025. Similarly, CEFLEX’s guide aims to inspire “much needed investment in sorting and recycling infrastructure to make all flexible packaging circular,” in line with the EU Plastics Strategy’s requirements that all plastic packaging must be recyclable by 2030.

Edited by Joshua Poole