Solving the Plastic Bottle Conundrum
A juice company wants to do right by its customers. But it also needs to keep an eye on its margins. Can they find suppliers of food grade recycled plastic or move to other alternatives?
Previously, on the Young Writers’ Club, the teens familiarized themselves with the problem in hand- plastic bottles for packing juice and the like must have 30% recycled plastic, starting from April, 2025. Introducing the rule to use recycled plastic in the manufacture of new plastic bottles seems like a responsible way forward. But looking closer it is not as straightforward. There are multiple perspectives to be considered. A quicker way to understand the big picture was to divide and conquer.
The most prominent of the problems identified is producing food grade plastic with recycled plastic in it. There are few manufacturers who can make it and it comes with its own costs. Given this information, what should a juice manufacturer do? Move to alternatives? What are the alternatives? What are the costs involved, benefits and potential drawbacks from the perspectives of the company, the environment and the customers?
Every teen was given a role to play in the company’s team that was meeting to figure a way out of this problem.
The teen playing the role of the CEO presented the problem, asked for ideas to face the challenge, keeping in mind the costs to the company and customer satisfaction as well. He proposed switching over to glass or cartons and sought the opinion of the different members of the team.
The Eco Warrior in the group in charge of ensuring that the company’s operations are environment friendly suggested sustainable products that could be recycled. She spoke about introducing bio plastic bottles, aluminum cans and glass bottles instead of using plastic bottles. She proposed this as an alternative to using plastic bottles which may end up being not food grade and is potentially harmful to the customers.
The retail distributor was against glass bottles stating that sending them for recycling has challenges. Plus, the hassle of dealing with glass and cleaning for recycling later. He also pointed out that glass bottles may not be fully recyclable. He argued that they are not energy efficient and are inconvenient. He recommended cans to glass bottles.
The discussion took an interesting turn when we moved to the Focus Group Representative in the group. The teen who played this role pointed out that glass bottles are not at all preferred amongst many customers. That is true especially amongst mothers who tend to buy fruit juices for their kids especially during the summers. Kids and glass bottles are a dangerous combination. They would rather prefer to stick with plastic bottles as these can be washed and reused as water bottles too. Plus lesser hassle with kids. Even if they drop the bottle there is no worry of breakage. The Focus Group Representative made it extremely clear that the target audience, especially mothers of small kids who are likely to buy a lot of juice during summer would not like any other packaging other than plastic bottles. Cans are inconvenient for kids to drink from and also these cannot be reused. Hence there would be no takers.
The Materials Manager was called in for his inputs. Is there a way we can continue with plastic since the customers seem to prefer it. The teen playing this role highlighted the need for us to move away from plastics by listing more challenges. Quality of plastic bottles are in serious question, he pointed out as they tend to have additives in the plastic used and are not safe especially when kept outside in the sun. These could have potential harm on the customers and hence the need to make a shift to better quality packaging is the need of the hour. He found that silicon bottles are eco friendly and customer friendly in terms of material. Plus come with the additional feature of malleability. They can be crushed and brought back into shape when required for use. This feature would mean less space for usage and no risk of breakage during transport. But cost might be an issue, he warned. Given the options, cartons might be the best option although they cannot be reused. The layers of packaging can preserve the contents for a long time and are a lot easier to handle.
Keeping in mind the customers’ safety & convenience, transport convenience, storage and eventually recycling and reuse commitments, cartons appeared to be the way forward. However to be 100% sure, the team consulted a Scientist.
Just like the other roles, one of the teens played the role of a scientist. The scientist explained why recycled plastic is not food grade and more processes need to be employed to ensure that it is food grade. He further systematically listed the pros and cons of options that are environment friendly and customer friendly. The list included aluminum cans, glass bottles, plant based plastics, cartons and even reuseable stainless steal bottles. Given the options, the cost factor was considered as well as the recycling capacity in India.
Plant based plastics are slowly picking up and come with a whole range of benefits to the environment as well as the customer. But cost factor still remains an issue.
Aluminum cans are more expensive but recycling facilities exist. They work well in maintaining temperature.
Glass bottles come with the challenge of storage, safe transport and pick up for recycling can be challenging.
Reuseable steel bottles are best as they are easy to clean and use. But for a large juice company distributing across the country, it is not suitable.
Refill bottles from bulk containers is another way to reduce plastic waste. Examples of Big Bazaar and Nature’s Basket trying out these initiatives were brought to the forefront as examples.
Edible packaging solutions was suggested but there is lack of data about how well this is likely to be accepted. Though it might be cost friendly if implemented correctly. This option is not yet tried and tested and might be risky at the moment.
Cartons are convenient, cost friendly and recycle friendly too. Capacity exists.
After much discussion, all the team members seemed to arrive at the same conclusion- paper cartons seemed to be the best alternative.
But, said the Focus Group Representative. Customers don’t like cartons.
The focus group representative stopped everyone in their tracks and announced that customers are not going to be happy. They would prefer plastic bottles.
Could the juice company run a marketing campaign to educate the customer about the potential harm that plastic bottles can cause to their families and the environment? Could this be another opportunity to promote the company as a responsible company?
Next week, the team would set out to work on an extensive marketing campaign to market the convenience and benefit of cartons to plastic bottles to pack juices for this summer.
Stay tuned next week to discover the marketing campaigns designed by the teens to convince customers that paper cartons are more convenient and safe for their favorite fruit juice.
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