To the Bumble Bee Seafood Company, improving the sustainability and the quality of packaging go hand in hand. The company just announced new outer packaging for its multipack tuna cans made of readily recyclable paperboard. It is the first shelf-stable seafood brand to replace its shrink wrap packaging with a recyclable alternative.
The paperboard is made of 100% recycled material with at least 35% post-consumer content, and is certified by a major sustainability nonprofit. The new packaging has debuted on 23 SKUs, from 4- to 12-can packages. By moving from shrink wrap to paperboard, Bumble Bee will eliminate 23 million pieces of plastic waste per year. (This is an important topic in Supplement 5 in your Heizer/Render/Munson text).
Beyond the sustainability aspect, Bumble Bee saw other benefits to adopting the new paperboard packaging, writes Supply Chain Dive (April 26, 2022). For one, the carton allows the products’ barcodes to be scanned more easily than the shrink wrap, and to be placed on store shelves in two different orientations. In addition, the new paperboard packaging features bright colors and a picture of the tuna cans, along with nutritional information in a way that looks clearer than was possible on the shrink wrap.
This change from shrink wrap to paperboard will move the brand from 96% to 98% readily recyclable packaging. Both the new paperboard packaging and the metal tuna cans are curbside recyclable. A company survey that found 67% of consumers wanted its product packaging to be more recyclable.
“If you think about it, the U.S. recycling system was designed 50 years ago. It was designed for paper and bottles. It’s not designed for the type of flexible plastics that we have today,” said the company’s VP of global corporate responsibility.
Classroom discussion questions:
- Why is Bumble Bee making this change?
- What other product designs do your students note that have become more sustainable?