Reducing packaging through design innovations
By creating more lightweight plastic containers we can cut down on the overall amount of packaging material used. We use leading-edge computer aided engineering technology to help us.
Our concentrated detergents, such as Persil Small & Mighty, require half the packaging.
In Europe and South East Asia our new bottle design for Svelto detergent has helped save 220 tonnes of plastic a year.
Suave, our North American shampoo brand, has reduced its packaging weight by 17% and is now the lightest weight bottle on the US market. This has allowed an annual saving in plastic resin of almost 150 tonnes - the equivalent of 15 million fewer shampoo bottles being thrown away each year.
A new design for our Sure, Rexona and Dove deodorant bottles cuts plastic by 15%, saving 1 960 tons of plastic a year. As the design is more efficient to mould, it reduces energy consumption by around 6 million kilowatt hours - enough power for about 1 270 UK homes for a year.
By eliminating an outer carton from our Knorr vegetable mix and creating a new shipping and display box, we halved the packaging, resulting in 280 fewer pallets and six fewer trucks a year to transport the same quantity.
Reducing the width of the outer box of Lipton soup cartons saved 154 tonnes of card.
By reducing the packaging height on Bertolli frozen meal pouches and the corresponding shipping boxes, we achieved savings of 5.3% on flexible packaging and 8.6% on corrugated material. As a result we require 397 fewer trucks a year.
We reduced the width of our Lipton soup cartons cutting material use by 15.6%, leading to 6 437 fewer pallets and 132 fewer trucks a year.
A new design for the Knorr Recipe Secrets soup pouch eliminates the need for an outer carton, allowing a 50% reduction in overall packaging materials.
