The natural choice for packaging

When it comes to food and drinks, consumers want their products to be good – inside and out – making their packaging choices more important than ever

Most consumers today want the food and drink products they buy to have the least impact on the environment. But with so many on offer, many find it difficult to understand the real impact of their choices. Were all packaging materials sourced responsibly? Are they renewable? How many fossil fuel resources were used? Is the pack easy to recycle? And how big is the carbon footprint?

Packaged food and drink products today come in several forms – from metal cans and glass jars to retortable pouches, plastic bottles, carton packs and more. But which packaging solution has been proven to have the least environmental impact?  

Independent and critically-reviewed life-cycle assessments for all relevant market segments in Europe have shown that carton packs offer ‘significantly better’ environmental performance than other packaging formats in the food and beverage sector. This has been confirmed for a range of packaged products, including long-life food, UHT milk, and non-carbonated soft drinks.

In fact, the life-cycle carbon footprint of a carton pack is typically between 28% and 70% lower than other packaging solutions, such as HDPE, PET plastic and glass bottles. In addition, carton pack production has been shown to use considerably fewer fossil fuel resources, with consumption rates somewhere between 38% and 77% lower than alternatives.

Packaging that pays

At SIG, we strive to make our packaging as natural as possible, which is why around 75% of our packaging materials is paperboard made from wood – a natural, renewable resource. Like paperboard, all materials in our cartons can be recycled and are compatible for any disposal and recycling system after use.

Over the past 20 years, we’ve also cut the weight of our cartons by more than 23%. A result of this is that customers need fewer trucks to carry our packs, use less fuel to haul the weight, and require less space to store products. All these factors further contribute to reducing the overall carbon footprint of our packaging during the product life-cycle.

Aseptic SIG packaging also offers the added benefit of product transportation, storage and display at ambient temperatures. And since no refrigeration is needed to store SIG packs on shelves, there’s no subsequent carbon emissions or costs resulting from using chiller units, while the risk of food loss by spoilage is much lower.

Why choose cartons?

Looking for even more reasons to choose carton packaging? Watch the film below to see the world of benefits that comes with every SIG pack.  

Want to know more about how sustainable our packaging is? Contact us now or read more about our sustainability vision called WAY BEYOND GOOD.

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