IGD is urging retailers to prioritise sustainable packaging to reduce their environmental impact – and to that end it has released a report on how to help consumers adopt reusable packaging.
The grocery training and research group wants to mobilise the food and consumer goods sector to halve the environmental impact of all packaging by 2030, and its new report – How To Help Consumers Adopt Reusable Packaging – offers guidance on the subject.
According to IGD, the new publication is a tool for industry to help formulate sustainable packaging strategies that influence longer-term behaviour change.
Of the 2,000 UK consumers surveyed for the report, 41% have already adopted reusable grocery packaging in a bid to reduce their environmental impact. A further 42% are ‘thinking about’ using reusable packaging, highlighting the opportunity for the industry to take ownership and drive usage of this type of packaging.
Retailers such as Tesco – via its Loop partnership – and Asda, through its in-store refill facilities in some stores, are among the largest retailers at the start of the journey towards working out how to help consumers adopt reusable packaging.
Susan Barratt, CEO at IGD, called the delivery of sustainable packaging systems “a critical industry issue”.
“Collectively, we are working on solutions to meet our shared ambition to halve the environmental impact of all packaging and accelerate our industry’s progress towards Net Zero,” she explained.
“Reducing the need for single-use packaging through reusables is a vital part of the solution.”
Barratt added: “This report is the first phase of our work, which will continue in 2022 with the launch of a roadmap to deliver our ambition. Collective action is needed now, across our industry, to help consumers adopt refill and return packaging.”
The latest IGD ShopperVista research, which questioned 3,707 shoppers, found 41% of shoppers have reduced or stopped using single-use plastic and 63% consider reusable or recycled packaging to be ‘very important’ to them when choosing grocery products. It also indicates 78% of shoppers think more big brands should offer the ability for consumers to refill their packaging.
[Image credit: Green Retail World]
