Achieving packaging resource efficiency – The Northern Ireland Sustainable Food Packaging Programme

13 January 2010

Challenge

Northern Ireland's food industry is growing and has over 330 processing companies operating in the sector. Buoyed by strong export markets, food and drink is Northern Ireland's largest manufacturing industry and has a combined turnover in excess of £2.4 billion.

The Northern Ireland Executive has outlined strategic objectives to become more resource efficient, specifically:

- Northern Ireland's economy will achieve 85% resource efficiency by 2025
- Stabilise Northern Ireland's ecological footprint by 2015 and reduce it thereafter.

Working with DARD NI, Pira was challenged with specifying and supporting 45 food and drink packaging companies to undertake a sustainability improvement project within their business by 2011 - well in advance of national ambitions.

Approach

Working with CAFRE, Pira consultants designed, delivered and managed a series of workshops to highlight the key sustainability challenges for the packaging industry:

- Packaging reduction
- Packaging developments to extend food shelf life
- Measuring carbon foot-print
- Compliance with packaging regulations
- Food contact compliance
- Increasing recycled content of packaging.

The programme is supported by a series of key note industry seminars on carbon foot-printing and food contact compliance which are open to the whole Northern Ireland food, drink and packaging sector.

Benefits

There are several ways of achieving the step wise change in food and drink packaging resource efficiency in both national and international supply chains. These measures include voluntary best practice, most visible with the exertion of retailer pressure through the UK's Courtauld Commitment, or European legislation such as the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive. The project-based programme delivered by Pira allows businesses with Northern Ireland to tap into Pira packaging expertise enabling a step wise shift in the resource efficiency of the sector within 3 years.