Cellulose packaging and the multichannel challenge

The growth of e-commerce is changing the equilibriums of retail, also having important consequences on packaging, in particular that of paper and board. Studies, reflections and undertakings by Comieco that during Ipack-Ima will dedicate a seminar to the multichannel revolution.

In Italy every year around 4.1 million tons of paper, board and paperboard packaging are placed on the market for consumption, standing at 68 kg per inhabitant. These amounts make empowering the renewability of these materials and extending the scope of all the changes (economic, social, legislative…) that involve packaging even more important. As has happened with the retail revolution triggered by e-commerce in these years, states Eliana Farotto, head of Comieco R&D and spokesperson for Club Carta e Cartoni, the Club set up under Comieco to support and encourage the production and use of sustainable paper&board packaging. The cellulose based packaging recovery and recycling consortium dedicates great attention to the same and, in occasion of Ipack-Ima 2015, is organizing a special seminar entitled “Packaging from product to shelf to e-commerce: new functions, new opportunities” (Friday May 22, 3 pm, Congress Center).
«Speaking of packaging means broaching a complex subject – Farotto goes on to say – that ranges from production, to marketing, to logistics, and that nowadays is no longer only functional to the display of the goods on the shelves but also to sales via digital channels. E-commerce is radically changing the functions of packaging, and is drawing up new scenarios which the entire supply chain, from materials producers to largescale retail distribution, have to duly consider.

Less marketing, more ecology According to a study carried out by the Green Management Institute for Comieco, in 2013 e-commerce in Italy grew by 23%. It most of all concerns intangible services such as entertainment, finance and travel, but also involves the manufacturing industry to a considerable degree: notably 12% of online sales are accounted for by clothing. The consequences of the phenomenon on packaging are striking: the fact that the product does not have to be displayed on shelf but is bought online puts the aesthetic requisites of packaging in second place, bringing other features to the fore.
«In terms of design – Eliana Farotto underlines – this means that the pack can be conceived differently and more sustainably, provided it maintains the sturdiness needed to protect the product along the journey between producer and consumer. This is why packaging manufacturers have to start up a serious reflection and why Club Carta e Cartoni is involving user companies and distributors, who represent the key stakeholders in the policies of sustainability, in this dialogue».    
A value for the company and for the consumers These changes affect the very meaning of sustainability that, in fact, has taken on new attributes and is becoming evermore important. Even for the companies, who fully comprehend the relation between ecology, economy and economizing, and have made the matter a structural element of company policies.

Comieco starts off from here: «As far as logistics and transport are concerned – Farotto comments – the attention to economic and environmental aspects stimulates the development of packaging that is capable of minimizing the use of resources throughout its entire lifecycle, at the same time guaranteeing optimum protection for the product. This is an approach that is by now a must and that also takes into account the clear orientation of the consumers: a recent Pro Carton study demonstrated how the sustainability of packaging is having an ever greater influence on purchasing decisions, 64% of those interviewed expressing themselves in favor of ecofriendly material. And the figures of the supplier industry point to an ever greener future: we have now reached a recycling of 3.5 million tons of cellulose packaging, and we can grow more».   

If I’m left over, eat me!
Useful, fun and timely, the project promoted by Comieco has the slogan “Doggy bag - If I’m left over, eat me!”. In order to make it, the Italian Cellulosic Packaging Recovery and Recycling Consortium, in a partnership with Slow Food, has involved important designers and illustrators (Giulio Iacchetti, Matteo Ragni with Chiara Moreschi and Francesco Faccin, along with Olimpia Zagnoli, Beppe Giacobbe and Guido Scarabottolo) and two partners of the caliber of Andrea Kerbaker (novelist, essayist, university professor and more) and Michele de Lucchi (architect, designer and all around artist), who together “directed” the project.
Started last April, Comieco’s doggy bag project is a perfect fit for the anti-food waste culture promoted by Expo 2015 and seeks to introduce to Italy the habit of carrying leftover food and drinks home from restaurants. In such a way committed to recovery of food as well as packaging, the consortium has involved in the project a series of Milanese and Lombard restaurants (in late March more than 75 were involved), which will receive free kits for containers to offer their customers, who, for their part, can “recycle” the container as a way to bring food to potlucks and dinners.