Food packaging – as manufacturers and distributors of depackaging equipment, you’d think we’d love it. After all, we’d have a lot less demand for our separation machines without it. However, there’s a much bigger environmental and economic picture to think about – in particular reducing landfill and plastic pollution, and increasing recyclability.
Our machines depackage. That is to separate packaging from organic products such as food waste, to enable onward recycling of the packaging and use of the organic matter as a valuable resource, such as animal feed or energy production via anaerobic digestion. But we regularly see opportunities to maximise its impact even further, starting far earlier in the production chain.
We are engineers who specialise in waste separation, food waste handling and biomass engineering services. We have designed, installed, and supported multiple food waste handling lines across the globe, so it’s fair to say we’ve seen some food packaging in our time. Here’s our take on packaging.
Packaging vs perishing
The amount of waste and surplus food we create, both in the UK and globally, is a well-publicised problem and there is consensus across industries that this needs to change, in order to reduce the impact on the environment and address food poverty.
But a lot of the food waste we process is expired food, considered no longer fit for human consumption, and packaging plays a vital role in preventing food perishing sooner. When reducing the levels of packaging, there is therefore a risk that we could inadvertently create more food waste by reducing shelf lives.
A balance needs to be sought in order to optimise the net benefit.
Convenience culture
Perhaps at the heart of the issue is our societal expectations around the availability of food, throughout seasons, when we want it, and fully stocked shelves. The supermarkets, remembering they are commercial entities, maximise on this and arguably overfill shelves for visual appeal and to meet these expectations. Full shelves make products look fresh and plentiful, avoid disappointment, and enable bulk purchasing incentives.
For this to happen, packaging must be designed to prolong shelf-life, and this generally leads to more packaging (volume), or more complex materials (variants). A shift in public expectations could materially support reduced packaging, and even over-production.
Consistency, not quantity
But changing the very nature of how we shop is a big ask. Changing human habit and successful commercial models is even harder. So, what else can be done?
We are already seeing supermarkets take positive steps to reduce packaging waste in response to environmental concern, customer demand and government regulations. This includes more loose produce, refill services, or switching to recyclable or compostable packaging.
What we see regularly however, is packaging made up of a number of variant materials – in particular different grades of plastic, which require different treatment to be successfully recycled. Across the seven different grades of plastic, only PET (Grade 1) and DHPE (Grade 2) are commonly and easily recycled. Others present more challenge due to their chemical composition, contamination risks and mixed materials e.g. foil lined pouches.
Whilst separation machines like the Dominator can effectively remove most types of packaging from food waste, the ability for it to be then recycled it often hampered due to the number of variant materials in the packaging. This means that whilst the organic matter can go on to be used as a resource, too much of the separated packaging continues to go to landfill (or incineration) after processing.
In summary
For the safe distribution of food, and realistic shelf lives that do not add to the volume of food waste created, packaging will always be required. However, a more considerate approach to food packaging can reduce the environmental impacts.
Whilst on the face of it, the obvious focus would seem to be to reduce the volume of packaging – thought should also be given to reducing the mix of variants within it, in order to maximise the benefits of waste separation and enable the highest level on onward recycling.
To benefit from our separation machines or to learn more about food waste depackaging or our biomass engineering services, please get in touch.