Sustainable Packaging Project

1
Sustainable Packaging Project

• Overview of prior and future work

2
Sustainable Packaging Project

• to determine the best methods for improving the
  sustainability of the packaging industry

3
Our Motivation
Although there are many benefits associated with
packaging, there are also a number of important
issues that could benefit from more analysis. In
particular, we are interested in answering the
following questions

• What is the best method for benchmarking current
  packaging options?
• Taking into consideration the current state of
  packaging, what is needed to make it more
  sustainable?
• Once assessed, how can the social, environmental,
  and economic aspects of packaging be improved
  upon?

4
Our Goal Today
5
Overview

• The State of the Packaging World
• Our Progress
• Moving Forward

6
The State of the Packaging World
7
The Benefits of Packaging

• Packaging protects products during transport and
  can increase their lifespan. This decreases
  disposal due to spoilage or damage.

• Packaging provides information and increases
  appeal of items to consumer resulting in less
  stock going unsold.

8
Issues with Packaging

• Climate Change
• Associated with the green house gas intensity of
  product manufacturing

• Natural Resource Depletion
• Scarcity of raw materials, many of which are used
  in the production of plastics, such as oil,
  natural gas, coal, and agriculture.

• Waste Creation
• Issues of capacity for garbage disposal

• Pollution
• With decreasing capacity for waste disposal,
  trash ends up contaminating ecosystems, such as
  waterways.

• Dangers to Human Health
• Concerns over the toxicity of different source
  materials

9
Packaging in the U.S.(2006)

• 32 of the weight 50 of the volume of MSW is
  containers and packaging
• The amount of containers and packaging consumed
  equates to 300 pounds per American per year.
• 30 of all non-energy resources are consumed for
  packaging

Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Generation, with
Recycling (2006)
10
Challenges for Change

• Complicated supply chains
• Many stakeholders
• Complex policy environment

11
Complex Supply Chain
Packaging Manufacturing
Product Manufacturing
Distribution
Consumer
Raw Materials
Packaging Materials
12
Complicated by End of Life Options
Unused Packaging
Packaging Manufacturing
Product Manufacturing
Distribution
Consumer
Raw Materials
Packaging Materials
Repair
Inspection/ Sorting
Used Packaging
Refurbish
Service
Disassembly
Remanufacturing
Recycling
Disposal
13
Many Stakeholders
End-of-life handlers
Recyclers
Brand Owners
Material Suppliers
Fillers
Converters
Retailers
Consumers
Packaging Manufacturing
Product Manufacturing
Distribution
Consumer
Raw Materials
Packaging Materials
NGOs, Research Bodies
Industry Associations
Governments
Realm of Packaging
14
Plastic Bag Restrictions
ban
levy
15
(No Transcript)
16
(No Transcript)
17
(No Transcript)
18
(No Transcript)
19
(No Transcript)
20
(No Transcript)
21
(No Transcript)
22
Policy Environment
Primary challenges for government, industry and
individuals center around

• A lack of information
• Missing infrastructure
• Insufficient incentives, conflicting policies and
  standards

23
Needs Resulting from the Current Setting

• Sustainable Packaging
• Industry Guidelines
• Green Supply Chains
• Supportive Regulatory Environment

24
Our Progress
25
Progress to date

• Survey of current sustainable packaging
  environment
• Conceptions of sustainability
• Assessment techniques/methodologies
• Existing metrics
• Applicability to plastic film

26
Sustainable Packaging Conceptual Foundations
Society
Environment
Economics
27
Theoretical
Sustainable Packaging Conceptual Foundations
Analytical Methods Used to track improvements
based on chosen criteria
Design Guidelines Simple Oriented around
sustainability objectives
Assessment Methodologies
Regulations Standards Top-down Specific
goal(s) Gives directions or targets for industry
Scorecards, Checklists Criteria Used to check
progress Hard to compare tradeoffs Implicit
assumptions
Empirical
28
Theoretical
Sustainable Packaging Conceptual Foundations
Analytical Methods Used to track improvements
based on chosen criteria
Design Guidelines Simple Oriented around
sustainability objectives
Assessment Methodologies
Regulations Standards Top-down Specific
goal(s) Gives directions or targets for industry
Scorecards, Checklists Criteria Used to check
progress Hard to compare tradeoffs Implicit
assumptions
Empirical
29
Prevailing Analytical Methods

• Ecological Footprints
• Life Cycle Analysis
• Green Supply Chain Management

30
Green Supply Chain Management
Green Operations
Green Design
Life Cycle Analysis
Environmentally Conscious Design
Waste Management
Network Design Reverse Logistics
Green Manufacturing Remanufacturing
Remanufacturing
Pollution Prevention
Source Reduction
Inspection/ Sorting
Inventory Management
Disposal
Collecting
Reducing
Recycling
Pre-processing
Location Distribution (Network Design)
Production Planning Scheduling
Product/ Material Recovery
Reuse
Repair/ Refurbish
Disassembly
Disassembly Levelling
Disassembly Process Planning
Source Srivastava SK. Green supply chain
management a state-ofthe- art literature review.
International Journal of Management Reviews
20079(1)5380.
31
Survey of Sustainable Packaging Metrics from
Current Assessments
Design Guidelines
Scorecards, Checklists Criteria
Assessment Methodologies
Analytical methods
Regulations Standards
32
Survey of Sustainable Packaging Metrics from
Current Assessments

• Environmental
• Material traits
• Virgin, Renewable, Degradable, or Recycled
  content
• Packaging traits
• Quantity, Weight, Space utilization (Volume
  Pallet use), Transport
• Number of parts, Ease of separation
• Environmental impacts
• Resource Use Land, Water, Energy, Fossil Fuels
• Emissions and Pollution GHG, Water, Air,
  Eutrophication
• Toxicity and Risks
• End of life
• Recycling and Reuse Possibilities and Rates
• Energy Recovery Options
• Clear Labeling for Customers
• Waste creation, Litter
• Innovations

Design Guidelines
Scorecards, Checklists Criteria
Assessment Methodologies
Analytical methods
Regulations Standards
33
Survey of Sustainable Packaging Metrics from
Current Assessments
Design Guidelines

• Business Advantage
• Increased competitiveness Market
  differentiation, Image/ Reputation, Quality,
  Price/Possible profits
• Reduce risk Regulation compliance

Scorecards, Checklists Criteria
Assessment Methodologies
Analytical methods
Regulations Standards
34
Survey of Sustainable Packaging Metrics from
Current Assessments
Design Guidelines

• Social
• Impact on people/community
• Social right
• Equality
• Education/Training

Scorecards, Checklists Criteria
Assessment Methodologies
Analytical methods
Regulations Standards
35
Existing Metrics
Society

• Social right
• Impact on people/ community
• Equality
• Education/ Training

• Reusable
• Recyclable
• GHG Emissions
• Type of material
• Amount of material
• Clear labeling for customers
• Portion variability, refill packs

• Material Toxicity

• Weight
• Transport
• Volume
• Land use
• Water Use
• Energy Use
• Void space
• Innovation
• Litter

• Regulation compliance
• Market differentiation
• Image/ Reputation of material
• Price/ Possible profits
• Quality

• Raw Material
• Consumption

• Recycled/ Raw material content
• (Non)Renewable resource use
• Fossil Fuel Consumption

• Environmental impact
• Risk of eco-accidents
• Degradable material
• Production Waste
• Water pollution

• Air pollution

• Eutrophication

• Energy recovery
• Supplier

Environment
Economics
36
Results 40 Criteria
37
Major Issues Addressed by Criteria
38
Case Study Plastic Film
39
Typical Plastic Film Supply Chain
Oil Refinery
Chemical Plant
40
A Quick Application of Criteria
41
Insights for Plastic Packaging
42
Focus on where plastic falls short
43
Focus on where plastic falls short
4
2
3
1
7
6
5
44
Opportunities for plastic film
Possible Solutions
Issues
Benefits
Recycled material content Increased average
reuse Recyclable
End of Life Options
4
5

• Reduced Risk Regulation compliance
• Improved Image Reputation

6
1
Non Renewable resourcing Degradable material
Bio-plastics
2
3
7
45
Present State

• Survey of the available sustainability metrics
• Set of criteria to note the sustainability of
  packaging choices
• Several immediate options for investigating the
  improvement of plastic film
• Assess and improve the sustainability of supply
  chains
• Explore analytical methodologies and metrics to
  guide and evaluate production and manufacturing
• Examine end-of-life impacts and options
• Find regulatory tools to support stakeholders
  sustainability goals

46
Moving Forward
47
Guiding Our Foci
48
Next Steps

• Indentify additional applications of our research
  to other work being done in the field

• Potential Future Research
• Expand sustainability metrics
• Draw lessons from other policies

49
Potential Future Research Refinement of
Sustainability Metrics and Assessments

• To guide strategy choice and macro implementation
• Yifen Chen MS, IEOR

50
Focusing on the Supply Chain

• How does one allocate the life cycle impact of a
  product across the supply chain?
• The utilization of material occurs at the end of
  the product life cycle, but the impact can occur
  anywhere along the supply chain.
• If every member of the chain focuses on its own
  cost, sustainability will be very difficult to
  achieve.

51
Why we need an Assessment

• Retailer/consumers perspective
• A metric helps consumers evaluate their choices
  between manufacturers and/or products.
• Manufacturer's perspective
• A metric can provide a guideline for the
  production process overall, either at the level
  of the manufacturers process or at the level of
  the upstream supplier.

52
Problems with Existing Sustainability Assessments

• Degree of subjectivity
• Qualitative index may be user-dependent.
• Weight assignment may be arbitrary and
  non-transparent.
• The metrics may be chosen to benefit certain
  stakeholders.
• Problem How to convert qualitative metrics to
  quantitative metrics?

53
Choosing an Appropriate Assessment Type

• Aggregate
• Easy to evaluate products and/or suppliers
• May not be easily understood

• By category
• Easy to understand
• Easy to find problem areas

54
One approach a Hierarchical Metric
Overall Index

• One metric that might be useful to supply chain
  members is a Hierarchical Metric
• To construct this, wed establish metrics in
  different categories, then use weightings to
  construct an aggregate metric.

Quality
Resource
Energy
Water
55
Some of the Benefits a Hierarchical Metric could
Provide

• Like an aggregate metric, it could facilitate
  consumers/retailers in evaluating
  products/suppliers.
• Like a category metric, it could facilitate
  manufacturer process improvements

Future research can incorporate (part of) this
metric into manufacture/logistic models.
56
Next Steps for this Segment of Research

• Determine categories and factors
• Investigate and compare current metrics and
  practices
• Find good categories and factors for the plastic
  packaging industry.
• Convert factors to the same units
• Find a good weight for metrics at every level.
• Use the metric to evaluate different plastic
  products (if we have data)

57
Potential Future ResearchExploring the impacts
of policy choices

• To examine past case studies to understand the
  benefits and drawbacks of reward-based,
  voluntary, and take-back programs
• To eventually encourage certain types of actions
  over others

58
Past Case Studies

• When is a carrot or a stick approach the most
  useful?
• How can policy support innovation?
• How do we ensure policies are appropriately
  aligned with objectives of industry/government/NGO
  s?

59
Why Encourage Certain Types of Actions?

• What benefits does packaging as a service have
  over packaging as a product?
• Is up-cycling possible? If so, how can it be
  encouraged?
• How could we support top-down or bottom-up
  action?
• Why would we choose one approach over the other?

60
In Sum.
61
Comments?