Procurement and Supply Chain - Oakdene Hollins

WR1403: Business Waste Prevention Evidence Review
L2m4-3: Procurement & Supply Chain
3.3 Green Products
Procurement is used to promote green products in the supply chain by requiring and/or assisting
suppliers to:
concentrate the product so as to require less packaging per unit
lightweighting primary or transit packaging
redesign packaging to improve packing efficiency
offer re-sized product portions to reduce wastage
reduce hazardous content or wastes associated with manufacture.
To these should be added RTP or bulk packaging innovations where new designs have been required, as
discussed in Section 3.2.
Many of these techniques have been evidenced as a result of Phase 1 (2005-10) of the WRAP-supported
Courtauld Commitment and are thus widely seen in the retail and food and drink sectors. The modules
L2m5-2: Food & Drink Sector, L2m5-3: Retail Sector, and L2m4-4: Commitments discuss the approaches
in further detail and give numerous examples arising out of the Courtauld Commitment as well as other
supported and unsupported supply chain initiatives. Some of these have been reproduced in Table 3
which includes two further examples:
The retailer Sainsbury’s worked with a supplier to redesign the packaging of its own-brand garlic
bread saving of 160 tonnes per year of packaging (43 p. 18)
Ford Europe worked with suppliers to develop a vegetable oil-based lubricant which significantly
reduced the waste generated by metal-cutting machinery in the production of engines (48 p. 138).
Table 3: Summary of green products evidence
Category Supported Description Outcomes Ref
ID
Concentrated
Product
Lightweighting
(Both primary
& transit
packaging)
Lightweighting
(Primary
packaging
only)
WRAP/CC
No
No
TSB
Princes & Tesco: designed a double-strength
squash drink to reduce packaging
Drinks company Diageo: lightweighted bottles
and used thinner shipping canisters
Procter and Gamble reduced the weight of one
of its product plastic bottles by 30%.
Valueform and Reading University undertook a
research project to produce a more resource
efficient packaging material based on waste
vegetable matter
470 t/yr plastic saved (49)
97 t/yr glass and paper
annual saved
1,250 t/yr plastic saved; 750
t/yr cardboard saved
WRAP/CC Britvic: J 2 0 Soft drink packaging reduction 4,000 t/yr glass saved (42)
WRAP/CC Britvic: Robinsons soft drink packaging reduction 1,670 t/yr plastic saved (42)
WRAP/CC Burtons: Cookies 32% reduction in plastic (42)
WRAP/CC Cadbury: Easter Eggs packaging reduction Medium egg range: 220 t/yr
plastic saved; 250 t/yr carton
board saved; 90 t/yr less
transit & display packaging;
Large egg range: 108 t/yr
plastic saved, 65 t/yr carton
board saved; 44 t/yr
corrugated cardboard saved
WRAP/CC Coca-Cola: Soft drink can packaging reduction 15,000 t/yr aluminium saved
(projected across EU)
WRAP/CC Coca-Cola: Soft-drinks bottle packaging reduction 3,500 t/yr glass saved (42)
n/a
(50)
(19)
a
(42)
(42)
18 For Defra