Recently Hasbro announced its plans to reduce materials used in the its product packaging for many of its popular and global brands, which includes My Little Pony, Nerf, and Play-Doh.

According to Hasbro, the new initiative will result in about 15 percent improvement in the product-to-packaging ratio and the brands and products that are included in the initiative.

Over the next two years, Hasbro said that consumers and retailers will begin to see the effect of the broader range of packaging, which includes redesigned disposable boxes and blister packs that use less material than before. Examples of changes to come include the more efficient package design for the 2013 My Little Pony assortment pack which is expected to reduce the overall size of shipping containers by 20 percent, which in turn creates transportation efficiencies. Hasbro did also note that packaging that serves dual purposes such as long-term storage with game boxes, will not be included in the sustainable packaging initiative.

“Improving Hasbro’s product-to-package ratio underscores our long-standing commitment to environmental sustainability,” said Duncan Billing, Hasbro’s Global Chief Development Officer. “This initiative is designed to streamline our manufacturing processes and reduces our use of natural resources, providing consumers with more manageable and environmentally responsible packaging for our products.”

The most recent efforts involve reducing the total packaging size in a series of sustainable packaging initiatives that Hasbro is taking to minimize its environmental impact.

As described by the company, these initiatives include:

• Phase-out of PVC in packaging: In 2011, Hasbro announced plans to eliminate PVC from all new core toy and game packaging beginning in 2013.
• Elimination of wire ties: In 2011, Hasbro replaced all wire ties in its packages with ties made from paper rattan or bamboo mix to reduce environmental impact. The effort eliminated approximately 34,000 miles of wire ties – more than enough to wrap around the circumference of the Earth.
• Increasing recycled content: In 2011, Hasbro achieved its goal to derive at least 75 percent of paper and board packaging from recycled material, or from sources that practice sustainable forest management. By 2015, Hasbro plans to increase that target to 90 percent.
• Responsible paper sourcing policy: Hasbro implemented an aggressive paper sourcing policy in 2011, providing guidelines for suppliers regarding sustainable paper sourcing to help ensure that paper used in Hasbro products aligns with the company’s commitment to environmental sustainability. Among the policy’s key requirements is the expectation that suppliers will source paper with as much post-consumer recycled content as practical and financially viable. The company has communicated the policy to its suppliers, and has made it a part of its company-wide quality assurance procedures.

Source: www.hasbro.com.

As the Easter season nears, many of us can’t help but dig into a bag of Nestlé chocolate Easter eggs. Every year, nearly 25 million (that’s a lot of chocolate eggs!) of the chocolate eggs are produced in the U.K., which accounts for over 10% of Britain’s annual chocolate sales.

This year, Nestlé UK & Ireland has made their egg packaging 100 percent recyclable , making them the first producer of confectionery goods to use 100 percent recyclable packaging across its entire Easter egg range.

Nestlé converted to 100 percent recyclable packaging by replacing the rigid plastic with cardboard. The eco-packaging project removed all plastic packaging from the eggs and took six years to complete. The change of materials is estimated to save roughly 725 tons of plastic waste from entering landfills per year. That number is based on the comparison of the weight of plastic used in 2008 to manufacture the Easter egg boxes.

Throughout the past few years, Nestlé UK & Ireland has made efforts to reduce the weight of the packaging for its Easter eggs and in 2006 succeeded in reducing the weight of the small and medium-sized eggs by 30-50 percent. Then, in 2009, the company hit a milestone by becoming the first major confectioner to replace non-recyclable plastic with recyclable cardboard packaging in 20 million eggs, which equates to 80 percent of the line. Efforts then continued and in 2011, 100 tons of plastic were removed across the entire line.

Easter egg packaging has been known to create lots of packaging waste and it is estimated that in 2009, packaging from the eggs created 3,000 tons of waste in the U.K. alone. In 2011 86 million Easter eggs were sold, a market valued at £280 million ($445 million), Nestlé said.

Nestlé has also been making efforts outside of the Easter egg candy packaging to reduce its global footprint. Other packaging reduction efforts include a redesigned refill packet for Nescafé coffe that now requires 50 percent fewer trucks per ton of coffee to transport the goods to retailers, and packaging reductions to its other seasonal confectioneries, Nestlé said.

Source: Nestlé