The most comprehensive and wide ranging study of how much packaging a typical household shopping basket contains and what materials it is made of is published today by The European Shopping Baskets Program (ESB), a joint project of EUROPEN (The European Organization for Packaging and the Environment) and STFI-Packforsk AB Stockholm.

The report1 provides detailed and valuable findings from a study of typical household shopping baskets in five European countries2, chosen to provide as representative as possible a cross-section of the EU member states. Its aim is to generate data that will enable an improved understanding of what drives development and demand for packaging used to deliver fast moving consumer goods in Europe.

With the packaging of 468 products studied, covering leading branded products in 54 different product segments, the ESB database provides previously unavailable data on packaging use in Europe based on both qualitative and quantitative facts.

The findings of the study will be an immense aid both for companies to benchmark their own packaging against the Basket data and averages, and for stakeholder dialogue about packaging’s environmental aspects. This benchmarking and dialogue can at last be based on sufficient facts to support decisions, in areas such as environmental performance, consumption patterns and differences between countries etc.

The ESB will also help in further optimising packaged goods distribution systems. Reducing the environmental impact of the logistics that deliver the goods from factories to our homes will be a positive contribution towards the goals of the recently launched EU Commission Sustainable Consumption and Production Action Plan. The Plan looks at a range of environmental impacts arising from how products are consumed and produced in Europe.

Commenting on a key reason for the study, Julian Carroll, Managing Director of EUROPEN pointed out that until now a vast amount of published data on packaging’s environmental impact has been about packaging waste and its management as required by EU legislation. “The ESB report for the first time looks at packaging in its functional role by reporting data that describes packaging not as a waste statistic but as a protector of more valuable resources like the food and beverages we consume and products we depend on to maintain the living standard we are privileged to enjoy in Europe. ”

Kennert Johansson, Director of Division Packaging, Media & Materials, of STFI-Packforsk AB added that “the database can be used to illustrate what a consumer normally buys over a year from retail stores typically with at least 100 m2 floor space and permits an examination of collected packaging data in numerous ways in order to draw conclusions”.

The ESB Program is unique because it combines all of the following factors:
- It is representative of the most common products a consumer regularly carries home
- The whole packaging system (primary, secondary, and transport packaging) is studied
- Calculations are scaled to the number of articles sold per year in each product category
- The influence of reusable packaging is considered when calculating the results.

The contents of each basket were constructed using data supplied by A.C. Nielsen which included sales volumes for every selected item. Packaging data and key values3 have been generated for the countries studied and these, together with knowledge of relevant national social data, allow trends in packaging to be investigated against known social and demographic influences in each country.

Speaking in Stockholm at the launch of the report, Kennert Johansson said: “The findings of the ESB Program help us see the big picture of packaging, its relation to products we consume and its vital function in that capacity.”