Only 52% of used beverage
cans (UBC) in North America are recycled. Leading aluminum producer Alcoa
wants to raise that to 75% by 2015, because recycled aluminum requires 95%
less energy to produce and can be recycled many times with no degradation.
Seven in 10 consumers said they’d be willing to pay up to 20% more for
environmentally friendly products, and only one in 10 said they were unwilling
to pay anything extra, according to a survey by Mambo Sprouts Marketing.
Consumer desires and supply chain requirements drive meat and poultry package development.
Consumers expect a lot from meat and poultry packaging. Their wish list includes a diverse set of attributes, including sustainability, convenience, freshness indicators and on-label nutritional data.
Sustainability is steadily gaining the attention of American consumers
as media coverage of resource conservation increases, and concern
deepens on environmental issues.
We’re living in a consumer economy. Yet we recognize that a one-way product life cycle is not sustainable. You can reuse a bottle as a flower vase but, at the rate people consume our product (and I have no interest in telling them to consume less), there are only so many flower vases that you need.
Hershey Foods will discontinue
its Ice Breakers Pacs candy in response to criticism that it was
packaged in a way that resembled powdered cocaine. The single-serve
packets of powdered breath mints came in film that dissolved on the
tongue, but police officers and others said the product too closely
resembled powdered street drugs.
The meat industry is facing widespread challenges. People are being
advised to eat less of it for health reasons. Plus safety questions
about antibiotics, hormones, e-coli and now cloning have consumers a
bit on edge.
Nestlé Waters North America focuses completely on bottled water, making
it unique among the beverage giants. It incorporates sourcing, bottling
and distribution as well as packaging and market strategy under one
process.
