Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is an excerpt of a current article from Convenience Store Decisions magazine.
Last November, McDonald's reported that 82 percent of its packaging in its nine largest markets is now made from renewable materials. Increasingly, convenience store retailers are following Mickey D's lead, seeking to capture a greater share of takeout sales as well as respect the earth with reliable, environmentally friendly packaging that won't drive up the cost of takeout meals.
Historically, environmentally friendly packaging materials have been niche products, alternatives to the traditional paper, aluminum and plastic polymer products, said John Burke, president of Foodservice Packaging Institute Inc. (FPI).
"What we've seen, particularly over the last four or five years, is a movement of these products into the wider marketplace," Mr. Burke said. "In the U.S. take-out market, I would describe this as pretty much of a West Coast phenomenon, and in terms of the overall marketplace, 'green packaging' is still more of a university foodservice type of thing, but the demand from consumers is there."
Those considerations resonated with Jerrod McPherson, co-owner with Trent Lee of Fargo, N.D. Cheetah Marts. Most of the packaging Cheetah Mart currently uses is recyclable, with over 90 percent of the containers, including those for salad, soup and their very popular caramel rolls, made from recycled materials. "When it comes to adding packaging, there's no question we'll take a close look at renewables because it's just the right thing to do," Mr. McPherson said.
The only major customer feedback that Indianapolis-based Village Pantry has received about packaging was when the c-store added paper and Styrofoam cups for coffee and plastic and Styrofoam for cold drinks, offering his customers a choice of materials. "If we had a lot of customers asking for it, green packaging would be higher on the priority totem pole," said Chad Prast, director of foodservice for Village Pantry. "Even now, if a vendor comes in with one container that's green and one that's not and the costs are comparable, we would definitely go with the green."
Mr. Burke noted that packaging that uses the biopolymers and non-cellulose
paper materials that constitute today's green packaging is only green to a
point. Unless the consumers who purchase the food in those containers recycle
the packaging appropriately, retailers may be spending extra money for them
for little or no environmental benefit.
"The challenge in foodservice packaging is that 70 percent of it goes
out the front door. Where it goes after that is anybody's guess," Mr.
Burke said.
Discussion Questions: How much of a selling point is green packaging at retail? Is the likely sales lift from moving to green packaging worth the investment for convenience stores?