Brief 2: Starpack - Packaging to help reduce consumer food waste

The Brief

Selecting from one of the categories - bakery, convenience food-to-go or fresh produce create a plastic pack that is recyclable or made from recycled content and helps reduce food waste by the consumer. Printed graphics on card or paper labels can be used to enhance the pack and help educate the consumer.

This was a brief that me and Courtney both wanted to work on, so we decided to collaborate in the hope that two minds are better than one. We immediately established that fresh produce is the biggest food waste out of the three and to us seemed like the most obvious one to try and tackle.

Considerations:

- Protection of the product during transportation
- Increasing shelf life in store
- Visual impact
- Increase in single households
- Rise in convenience shopping
- Functionality of pack
- Visibility of contents
- Recyclable/ Made from recycled content

For us, fresh produce seemed like the most logical area to work our ideas around as this has such a profound impact on the amount of waste we throw away each year.

Taking a look at existing packaging:

Often the packaging is made from part plastic film which isn't recyclable and the container itself is only recyclable if washed, not something everyone will know or bother to do.

After assessing current packaging standards, our first initial thoughts on how the packaging should be included:

- Sustainable, e.g. recyclable or made from recycled plastics and cards
- An Education part of the packaging, possibly tips or facts related to food waste that could incentivise consumers to do their part to help the environment.
- Some sort of portion divider to make the process more convenient for single households or those who only cook one/two portions at once.
- Having tearable packaging will help with the portion diving.
- Package visuals that show the impact of the production of fresh produce as a disincentive to thinking twice before throwing something away.
E.g. a water meter on the front to show how much goes into the production of each chicken breast etc.