The European Shopping Baskets Program (ESB) is a joint project of EUROPEN (The European Organization for Packaging and the Environment) and STFI-Packforsk AB Stockholm have published a comprehensive study of how much packaging a typical household shopping basket contains and what materials it is made of.
The European Shopping Baskets Program (ESB) is a joint project of EUROPEN (The European Organization for Packaging and the Environment) and STFI-Packforsk AB Stockholm have published a comprehensive study of how much packaging a typical household shopping basket contains and what materials it is made of.
The report provides findings from a study of typical household shopping baskets in five European countries (including the UK), 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.
Some examples of the report's findings are:
- Plastic is the most common primary packaging material for the products in the Baskets (approximately 44%), with paper and board the second most common primary packaging material (approximately 23%).
- On average 82% of the weight of a packed pallet is product, a relatively high value. However, average volume efficiencies are much lower, typically around 50%, which indicates an area for further investigation and potential improvement in logistics.
- Reusable packaging can be found at all three packaging levels: reusable tertiary packaging (generally a wooden pallet) is common in all five countries (overall average is 96 weight-%), while the presence of reusable secondary packaging is much more variable (range is 47-88 weight-%). The data also show that reusable secondary packaging usually holds reusable primary packaging.
- There is a complete polarisation between countries in the use of reusable primary packaging: Estonia, Finland and Poland have a high incidence (50-70 weight- %) while Italy and the UK use virtually none.
You can download the report itself here.
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