80% of consumer-goods companies fall behind packaging and circularity goals within a year of setting them, according to a new report by US-based management consulting company Bain & Company.
The report, “A Roadmap for Sustainable Packaging in Consumer Goods“, found that only 7% succeed in implementing their packaging and circularity objectives – half the rate of most other industries.
Bain & Company says that innovation is often not the solution, as experienced with other supply chain challenges, since packaging companies are often “at the mercy of inadequate recycling and waste management systems in the markets where they make and sell goods”.
Bain & Company also says the consumer goods companies which have made the biggest strides toward their goals are those that have invested in legislation, infrastructure, consumers, and the retailers who sell a consumer products company’s goods, and technology.
The American company says this collective model, known as LICT, helps companies prioritise the right levers they can use to achieve their packaging circularity goals.
The companies that make the biggest leaps to their sustainable future will be those that take a systematic approach to packaging.
One global beauty company has employed the LICT framework to combat its packaging by reducing the physical size of its products, through more concentrated liquids, and reusing bottles by offering customers refilling capabilities. At the end of the lifecycle, the brand has also provided customers with ways to replace and recycle packaging.
Bain & Company says the company established ways of reducing packaging GHG emissions by 42% in 2030 compared to 2020 emissions by using 20% less packaging material. As a result, they are delivering products in which half of the plastic material is recycled and 100% of all packaging material is either reusable, recyclable or compostable.
Luciana Batista, co-author of the report alongside Daniela Carbinato, and also a partner in Bain’s Consumer Goods practice, said: “There’s a clear business case for putting weight behind sustainable packaging.
“The companies that make the biggest leaps to their sustainable future will be those that take a systematic approach to packaging. One that considers the market context, and how best to deploy resources for both immediate and long-term change.”
