In the quest for sustainability, the received wisdom is that while challenger brands introduce sub-scale innovation, major corporates are sitting on their hands, happy with the status quo.

Not so. A new survey has found that a whopping 92% of packaging experts responsible for packaging R&D, technology, design and sustainability for the leading UK FMCG brands want to stop using any plastic in their consumer packaging. And not as a principle they can commit to at some dim and distant point in the future either. They want to achieve this in the next five years.

This is clearly ambitious. Pringles, for example, first trialled paper prototypes of its iconic tubes in Tesco in 2020. It took a further four years to arrive at its latest and final iteration.  That development time is necessary to conduct all the required testing.  Any packaging change needs to be tested all the way through to the end of life. If you’ve got a 12-month shelf life, the packaging needs to be tested for 12 months.  So, in the case of long-life foods, the process is, well, long.

There is a push and a pull required to achieve change. While the higher cost of alternative packaging has been cited as a barrier, it is also the lack of availability of alternative packaging which is also a barrier to change.

Unilever has led the charge among leading corporates in attempting to use more sustainable packaging. They have stressed the importance of collaboration and are looking at how to collaborate and how to scale, collectively, bringing people together to try and find solutions that have broad applications. Because as soon as you’re working in niche areas, with small volumes, there is always a potential cost challenge, which is absolutely an inhibitor to being able to go further.