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Many ecologically minded North Bay food and beverage businesses are struggling with how to package their products in an environmentally friendly way without incurring high costs or passing them on to consumers.
Efforts towards sustainability in packaging are not only limited by the potential impact on their bottom line, but also concerns over ensuring a product survives the journey from the field or farm to the shelf, according to George Kuhn, founder and principal at Sonoma FoodBev Solutions, which provides sales, strategy and other services.
“When the slightest amount of error gets into a package, that product can deteriorate or the flavor will be impacted,” Kuhn, who spent two decades working at Pepsi Co., said of the potential risk posed by sustainably sourced food packaging.
Healdsburg’s own Truett-Hurst Inc. winery proved a cautionary tale when in 2014 retailers blamed its plastic-lined cardboard “PaperBoy” wine bottles for spoilage, causing the company to post significant losses.
Kuhn noted that even if smaller businesses invest time and resources into the creation of effective, sustainable packaging, large retailers stocking the products often demand specific, attractive display packaging.
Customer demand is not yet driving companies to change their practices, according to Bill Kerr, creative director at Santa Rosa-based Vertical Brand Development, which works with food and beverage clients.
“Consumer behavior isn’t … making it necessary for companies to innovate and invest in the environmental initiatives in the way that they should in 2019,” Kerr said.
Sebastopol-based Traditional Medicinals is a study in packaging ideals meeting market forces.
The company makes herbal tea and other supplements, and, while it is committed to decreasing the impact of its packaging and overall environmental footprint, economic and practical concerns continue to create snags, according to the company’s Sustainability Manager Benjamin Couch.
Couch said packaging was the second largest contributor to the company’s carbon footprint, adding they were working towards a zero waste goal but had not yet found a way around certain issues like plastic to individually wrap its teabags.
“We have to have really high oxygen and moisture barriers,” Couch said. Each teabag is packaged with an outer paper layer and inner plastic layer, necessary to ensure the herbs and oils inside remained viable from the time they are harvested to when they are used, he added.
While the company was working with outside firms developing sustainably sourced overwrap, Couch said it was not developed enough or sufficiently cost effective for Traditional Medicinals to use yet.
“If we wanted to replace our existing overwrap with a more renewable one that would mean having a plan that would replace it in an economic way at our scale,” Couch said, noting that financial concerns were only part of the problem.
The company is committed to not using genetically modified organisms, Couch said, and many of the materials that might replace the plastic come from GMOs.
Even concerns over thickness come into play he added, noting that the thinness of the current plastic wrap allowed the bags to run smoothly through the company’s packaging machines, another hurdle for compostable or recyclable materials.
However, when it comes to finding ways to economically and practically embraces sustainable packaging, there are success stories. One San Francisco-based chocolate and health food company, Alter Eco, worked with a collaborative of Northern California CEOs and business leaders called OSC2 dedicated to sustainable food solutions to create a fully compostable pouch for the quinoa it sells.
That involved incurring increased costs and altering the packaging, doing away with a zippered top and decreasing the size by about 20 percent, according to OSC2 Executive Director and co-founder Lara Dickinson.
“From a financial standpoint they’ve had to bear a slightly higher cost,” Dickinson said, noting the changes, which also include a fully compostable wrapper for Alter Eco’s chocolate truffles, have not affected sales.
Santa Rosa-based Wildbrine specializes in fermented foods like sauerkraut and kimchi. One of the owners, Chris Glab, said food products, particularly his which include still living organisms from the fermentation process, pose unique packaging challenges.
Glab said his company used the most recyclable jars rated 1 out of 7 on the recyclability scale, meaning it is lighter weight, requires less energy to transport and is easier to melt down.
Still-fermenting items like sauerkraut and kimchi release gas. Those jars have to be sealed yet still allow some gas to escape so they do not over pressurize, all while not leaking any fluid, a unique packing challenge that also narrows the materials that can be used.
Glab added that sustainability was not just in the packaging and that his company works to reduce its ecological impact in other ways by cutting down on water waster and using 100 percent of cabbages for its fermented products and sauces.
Even increases of pennies per unit can cause companies to think twice about using renewable packaging materials made from things like sugar cane or bamboo according to Paul Tasner, co-founder and CEO of San Francisco-based PulpWorks, which makes compostable take out containers and lids for beverage holders.
“We’ve had a challenging time selling that because it costs more than a plastic lid,” Tasner said, noting a normal plastic to go coffee lid costs a company about 1 cent versus 3 cents for his product. That cost adds up quickly however when it comes to millions or billions of units, he said.
Still, he said the tiny increased cost for the consumer should be outweighed by the environmental gain. “Who among us isn’t going to pay 2 cents more for a cup of coffee?” Tasner asked.
Compostability is not the end of the story however, according to Couch of Traditional Medicinals.
He said while his company is committed to using renewable materials for things like wrappers, even creating compostable packaging was not ultimately enough since many parts of the country did not have access to industrial facilities able to compost refuse.
Santa Rosa-based Amy’s Kitchen, makers of convenience and frozen packaged foods, said it continued to grapple with the problem. “At our Drive-Thru, we’ve designed our packaging system to be completely made from renewable, compostable materials,” a company representative wrote in an email. “One of the main challenges we’re facing in achieving a 100% compost program though is that our waste hauler isn’t currently able to bring all of our materials to a compost facility that will accept it.”
Much of the Bay Area does have industrial composting facilities, however, according to OSC2’s Dickinson. She said infrastructure would essentially follow innovation.
“It’s an excuse to do nothing versus start to see a system change,” she said.