Mrs Green talks to Kenco about their packaging

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Toby Smart from Kenco answers our questions about packaging

This week’s guest post is from Toby Smart from the Kenco marketing team. I asked him some questions about their packaging after reading about their “Eco refill” packs (ad below).

Kenco’s Eco Refill packs are for you to pour straight into your Kenco jar which reduces packaging weight by 97%.

Toby’s favourite coffee is White Americano!

1-You’ve recently created a ‘waste less’ campaign – what are the aims of your campaign and who is the campaign aimed at?

The ‘Kenco Eco Refill Waste Less Challenge’ is a nationwide initiative led by Amanda Holden and eco-expert Oliver Heath to encourage Brits to re-think their rubbish and reduce the amount of waste they throw away. Reusing and refilling old coffee jars alone could reduce the amount of waste being sent to landfill by as much as 26,000 tonnes per year – we estimate this to be comparable to 5,400 bin lorries off the road**.

Amanda and Oliver launched the campaign recently from a selection of streets called ‘Waste Lane’ in different parts of the UK. The campaign involves a series of films and masterclasses from Amanda and Oliver, available to everyone at Kenco and on You Tube, which demonstrate some fun and creative tips on how to turn waste into useful household objects.

**Based on average size of a refused truck as 16 cubic metres, according to Dennis Eagle trucks – one of the biggest refuse truck suppliers in the UK

2- We support unpackaged goods, here at My Zero Waste; buying items from bulk containers in our own reusable containers. Your recent campaign indicates that people who buy unpackaged goods have to carry things in their hands, fill up their children’s buggies and make the child walk or try and use their credit cards with their teeth while they struggle with their unpackaged products i.e. you indicate that buying unpackaged is an inconvenient and ‘silly’ way to buy things.
Do you think this is a fair representation of the reality of buying unpackaged products?

It is very encouraging to see people on websites such as yours trying to do their bit towards reducing packaging waste. The Kenco Eco Refill advertising campaign aims to communicate the idea that we are striving to use less packaging. By encouraging people to reduce and reuse, we want to contribute to a reduction in the amount of waste packaging being thrown away and sent to landfill.

At the moment, most people in the UK are used to buying coffee in glass jars. The Eco Refill campaign encourages consumers to think differently about how they buy their coffee in a fun way – whilst we do not think that buying unpackaged is a ‘silly’ way to buy things, it is not practical for certain products, like instant coffee, that are very sensitive to moisture and oxygen damage.

In addition, whilst we encourage less, unnecessary packaging we do not necessarily think packaging is always a bad thing! For Kenco, we want to make sure that our coffee gets to you in the best possible condition – therefore when considering packaging options we need to consider issues such as food safety, quality and how it is stored so to avoid unnecessary food wastage.

3- Many consumers would say that glass jars are better than your new packaging because they can be recycled more easily. Using your new packaging is essentially a non-recyclable product. Would you say your new packaging is really a step forward in helping consumers reduce waste?

Yes, we think that the Eco Refill is the best pack type that Kenco consumers can currently buy to help reduce waste. Compared to the standard glass jar, an Eco Refill contains 97% less packaging weight per gram of coffee. It reduces the overall mass of waste being sent to landfill compared to jars: this is because while the glass jar is recyclable, the jar lid is difficult to recycle (it is made of polypropolene which is not widely recycled in the UK) and so in most cases will be thrown away. The Eco Refill pack weighs less than the jar lid alone, so consumers who purchase the refills ultimately send less waste to landfill than those those who recycle the glass jar but have to throw away the plastic lid of the glass jar.

Finally, the Eco Refill encourages people to reuse their old jar packaging rather than throwing it away. In this way, the Eco Refill tackles the first two principles of the three Rs, “reduce” and “reuse” Kenco is also working with with TerraCycle towards closing the loop with the refill packs, by giving consumers the opportunity to return their empty refill packs to TerraCycle for these to be turned into something new, like a bag, umbrella or pencil case!

We believe that getting people to switch from buying new jars each time to using refills will have a positive effect in encouraging more sustainable behaviour.

4- From a zero waste point of view, using non composite materials which can easily be recycled might be a better option than your new packaging. What is it about coffee that leads to such complex packaging?

Instant coffee is ‘hygroscopic’ which means that it is very susceptible to moisture damage. At Kenco, maintaining the quality of our coffee is crucial. Packaging that doesn’t adequately protect the coffee could mean that people will end up throwing away (and wasting) spoilt coffee. A combination of the materials used for the Eco Refill pack (including plastic and aluminium) is necessary to protect the coffee from oxygen and moisture. Technology does not yet allow us to use recycled material for the refill packs or to make these recyclable without compromising on the quality of our coffee.

That said, the Eco Refill is not the end of Kenco’s sustainability journey: Technology in this space moves forward extremely quickly and our R&D teams are constantly working to improve our packaging .

5- What sort of percentage of customers do you think will actually send these eco refill packs to Terracycle compared to the number who would recycle their glass jars?

It is difficult to predict the precise percentage, but we will certainly be working hard to encourage as many people as possible to return their empty refill packs! It is recognised that 40% of consumer glass is not recycled (DEFRA, April 2009) – Kenco Eco Refill gives all consumers, whether they recycle their glass jars or not, the option to send their empty refill packs to TerraCycle to be turned into new products. We hope as many people as possible return their empty packs – upcycling is a great way help the environment and for every pack we get back we’ll donate 2p to a charity of your choice, so it’s also a great way to help a good cause.

6- Some consumers are suggesting your advertising is misleading. For example, in Sainsbury’s this week I noticed glass jars of Kenco coffee on sale for £4.89. The eco refill cost £3.58. On closer inspection I realised the glass jar contained 200 grams of coffee for £4.89 working out at £2.44 per 100g whereas the Eco Refill bag contained 150 grams for £3.58 which worked out at £2.39 per 100g.
This might indicate you are suggesting there is a significant cost saving to be made by buying the Eco Refill, whereas the consumer actually only saves 5p! Would it be fairer to pass on a larger proportion of the cost of reduced packaging weight and transportation to the consumer to increase incentive?

It’s important to remember that, under UK law, it is supermarkets that control prices rather than manufacturers and that packaging only makes up a small part of the total cost of the product. Working out the pence per gram of coffee for Eco Refills versus glass jars based on our Recommended Retail Prices (RRPs) should mean a saving for the consumers of between 15 and 30p when buying the Eco Refill pack.

7- I was talking to my eight year old daughter about this and she’s come up with the following suggestion: You sell the coffee in paper bags (which can be recycled, composted or reused and keeps the coffee in a dark place) and the paper bag gets put inside a polythene bag to exclude air and stop water getting in. The thing she suggests is not BONDING the materials together, so they can both be reused or recycled at the end of their useful life. I think that’s a pretty innovative suggestion from a young child; how would that work as a practical solution to packaging coffee?

We receive lots of ideas from consumers every year for product, packaging and advertising developments. We’re always working in these areas ourselves so your daughter’s idea may well be something we have already considered. Our ultimate goal is to make our packaging either totally re-usable or recyclable (or both). In order to do this, we will need to use new materials or new ways of packing just like your suggestion of separated layers. Using new materials or new packing processes often incurs extra cost, something that we’ve worked hard to avoid for our current Refill pack (which has a lower price per gram of coffee (RRP) than Kenco jars.

For now, the current format of Eco Refill is the only solution we have found to deliver both better value and environmental advantages so there is a clear incentive for everyone to switch. Our research teams will be continuously working though to improve our packaging even further as part of our sustainability drive.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7qmCU-ckgc

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