My son has dairy allergies and as such he occasionally enjoys a Silk Soy Yogurt. Lots of yogurt packaging I’ve seen includes a plastic lid that we simply take off and discard to reach the foil wrapper underneath. The Silk yogurt we got this week was missing the plastic lid and the foil wrapper stated:
Have we lost our lid?
Precisely.
Losing our lid saves over 100,000 pounds of plastic annually which is equivalent to planting 68 acres of trees every year!
Every loving spoonful of Silk Cultured Soy is powered by the wind!
Less Packaging = Less Cost
Not only is Silk saving plastic but since they don’t have to buy those lids, they make more money on every yogurt they sell. Even a slight reduction in packaging costs, when multiplied by a large volume, can equal some very nice savings for a company.
Reduced cost equals higher margins and thus increased profitability for your company. These great margins help ease future dips in your revenue and buffer you if other costs increase.
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Ben
August 31, 2006
Wow - how wasteful is that?
In the UK it’s the norm to only have foil lids. The only yoghurt’s I can think of that have plastic lids have something extra in the lid (some chocolaty sprinkles/ biscuits or something)
Personally I wish more companies would think about things like this. It saves money AND the environment so I don’t see how anyone can lose.
Joe Rawlinson
August 31, 2006
Ben-
Agreed. Reduced packaging helps both the company’s bottom line and the environment.
I’ve seen other yogurts without the lids but they didn’t take the opportunity to highlight those packaging benefits to the customers. Environmentally minded consumers may just choose Silk over other brands because Silk clearly touts their environmental position.
Paul
September 5, 2006
Yes, reduced packaging helps save some money and help the environment. I just hope this cost savings on the companies side does translate to cost savings to the consumers side too.
Joe Rawlinson
September 5, 2006
Paul-
I hope so too. Although I think the tendency for businesses is to simply call their process more efficient and pocket the extra savings.
A nice marketing campaign could highlight how reduced packaging now allows the customer to get more product for less, etc.
Rob Poitras
September 14, 2006
Did you hear that Apple reduced package size for the ipods by 50% just recently?
http://www.apple.com/environment/design/
Joe Rawlinson
September 14, 2006
Rob- I hadn’t seen that. That is a very interesting page showing the evolution of product size and packaging. Obviously Apple has realized the benefit to both their bottom line and the environment. Very nice.