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Asda’s Easter Egg Carton Has Less 98% Plastic

easter egg image

In a recent post on the Asda corporate website, Asda showcased a new range of easter eggs, known as the Extra Special Easter Egg range. This range has a carton structure that has not been used previously and contains an impressive 98% less plastic. However, there is still the same amount of easter egg inside.
This will amount to a saving of a total of 16 in tonnes of plastic compared to similar products in previous years.

Carton Structure Changes for new Easter Egg range

In order to ensure there was the same weight of chocolate inside the carton, Asda changed the shape of the egg itself from a wide, round shape to a taller, thinner, oval shape and adapted the carton structure to suit.

With this new shape, the egg did not need to be supported by plastic packaging. Instead, it uses recyclable cardboard. The photos below show Asda staff members holding the new and old versions of their easter egg cartons.

Asda’s commitment to sustainability

Like many supermarket giants, Asda has made a commitment to sustainability. They are striving to make their own brand packaging 100% recyclable by 2025.
Since February 2018, Asda has removed 8000 tonnes of plastic from more than 1000 own-brand ranges. This has included removing plastic from steaks, ready meal trays, greeting cards, avocados etc. One-third of the plastic used by Asda in their packaging will be recycled plastic by the end of 2020.

Perceived Sustainability’s Positive Effect on Sales

The front design of the carton doesn’t appear to contain any information about the considerable improvement in sustainability brought about by this revised carton structure. Given the global consumer interest in environmental issues and the #uselessplastic and #bansingleuseplastic movements, this is very surprising that Asda isn’t leveraging this considerable reduction in plastic use. Research that was carried out in 2016 appears to prove that “Positively perceived sustainability ……….always creates additional sales”.

Important Tip re Carton Structure Changes

If you are interested in revising the structure of your cartons or designing a carton for a new product to improve sustainability (or any reason), make sure to utilise our expertise to help figure it out. As with all carton packaging projects, it is very important that you begin the project by consulting us/your carton manufacturer before you consult your graphic designer. This may seem odd, however, the most important initial issue regarding packaging is the structure of the carton or sleeve, not the graphic design. The structure and the proposed cartonboard must be tested and approved before you approach a graphic designer looking for artwork creation. We will give your design agency a keyline (a keyline is an outline of the structure of your proposed packaging which they can use to create the artwork in the correct format for printing)

You may like to read our blog on finding the best structure for your carton.

Conclusion

Asda’s massive plastic reduction shows us that when a company is truly committed to finding a sustainable packaging solution, a great innovation in packaging design and structure can be the result. If you would like to read more about other companies who have innovated for sustainability, check out our other articles on sustainability.

Contact Dollard Packaging on 01 847 0044 or sales@dollard-packaging.ie for help with your packaging project.

See the original article here.

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