Environmental innovation in industrial packaging: a supply chain approach

Community concerns about the environmental impacts of packaging have prompted governments to introduce policies and regulations which impose eco-taxes or deposit-return systems, require companies to take-back and recover their packaging, or promote voluntary product stewardship programmes. Until recently these programmes have focused almost exclusively on consumer ( retail) packaging, but increasingly companies are starting to address the environmental impacts of industrial packaging. This is being driven as much by regulation as it is by the need to reduce costs and increase efficiency in supply chains. This paper argues that environmental innovation in industrial packaging systems requires a cooperative supply chain approach to ensure that environmental and commercial costs are reduced and efficiencies optimized for the chain as a whole. This is based on a review of the literature and an industrial packaging supply chain research and demonstration programme conducted between 2003 and 2005 in Australia.