Packaging Waste Reduction

Waste-Less in Seattle: Washington Retailers Reduce Packaging

You can't judge a book by its cover, but you can judge the book's cover--and the bag in which the book is sold. While packaging serves many useful purposes, some businesses are finding that certain types of packaging are unnecessary.

To reduce packaging waste, 41 retailers representing over 760 stores in the state of Washington have endorsed the Preferred Packaging Procurement Guidelines. Drawn up by the Washington Retail Association with funding from EPA and other sources, the guidelines consist of goals, priorities, and tips that retailers can voluntarily follow to reduce packaging waste and encourage recycling.

The guidelines challenge retailers to achieve a number of targeted goals. One of the goals encourages retailers to reduce all packaging by 25 percent within 48 months. Another asks businesses to use corrugated cardboard with 40 percent recycled content within 24 months and 50-percent recycled content within 48 months. The recycled content should include as much postconsumer material as possible.

The guidelines also provide a set of waste reduction priorities to which retailers can refer when pursuing their individual reduction and recycling goals. The first priority is to eliminate packaging whenever possible. If packaging cannot be eliminated, retailers should then minimize the material used. As a third priority, packing material or packages should be reused. And fourth, retailers should design packages that can be conveniently recycled and/or that contain recycled content.

Over the past two years, many retailers have made impressive strides in implementing the guidelines. Storman's, a Seattle-area grocer, eliminated packaging by serving food samples on edible crackers instead of disposable napkins or forks. Associated Grocers, Inc., worked with suppliers to minimize the plastic in its cooking oil bottles, eliminating over 6,400 pounds of polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Helen's Hallmark reuses the packaging peanuts it receives from suppliers and even donates the extras to Mailboxes, Etc., for reuse in mailed packages. (About ten 34-gallon bags of peanuts are donated each month.) A large national retailer, Nordstrom's, Inc., simultaneously increased the recycled content in its shopping bags and made its bags easier to recycle by replacing plastic handles with paper ones. (Products made out of a single type of material, such as Nordstrom's new all-paper bags, are usually easier for recyclers to process.)

Finally, the guidelines offer practical technical assistance, including a set of tips on reducing packaging waste, a checklist for conducting an in-house packaging analysis, and other tools that retailers can use to work with suppliers to reduce packaging. The guidelines are designed to be flexible so that retailers can use their own ideas and timelines for implementing strategies.

Washington Retail Association's Preferred Packaging Procurement Guidelines

• Guideline 1: Eliminate Whenever possible, eliminate the packaging altogether.
• Guideline 2: Minimize For those products that must be packaged, minimize the amount of material that is used in the packaging.
• Guideline 3: Reuse Design packages that are either consumable, refillable, or reusable.
• Guideline 4: Recyclable/Recycled Content Produce packages that are recyclable and/or contain recycled content.

For more information on the Preferred Packaging Procurement Guidelines, write Patty Schwegman of the Washington Retail Association, 618 South Quince, Suite A, P.O. Box 2227, Olympia, WA 98507, or call her at 206 943-9198.

Reusable News is a publication of the EPA Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER).  Other issues of this newsletter can be found on EPA's Enviro$en$e Web site.

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