A Study Based on the Elimination of the Packaging Materials with Low Utile Value and Sustainable Packaging in the Oral Care Industry of Bangladesh

Abstract

Packaging used to be thought of as a way to secure a commodity through delivery, transport, or storage; however, it has evolved into more than a logistic role to protect and maintain a product during its shipment in the supply chain, and it now must fulfill many marketing roles before meeting its ultimate customer to be competitive. In the other hand, it is a reflection of the evolution of different types of self-service transactions as well as the increasing market appetite for knowledge as a result of increased dietary awareness. Due to the competition between leading brands, packaging are constantly changing and being updated the the latest fashions to satisfy customer needs and marketing policy. Most of the changes being made to the packages are deemed unnecessary from the environmental perspective. As these extra layer of packages aren’t always needed for the protection of the products, rather for the product to be eye catching to the consumers i.e. to increase sell. But the effect of these packages to the environment is perilous and has been ignored for long. This paper identifies packaging that have minimum customer utility value of fast moving consumer goods, quantifies potential reduction of packaging material and conservation of energy resources analyzing the characteristics of packaging materials. The products with low utile value packagings were identified through customer involvement via Google questnnaire survey. The packaging with the lowest utile value (i.e toothpaste) has been studied upon & the primary data’s were collected from various brands of the Bangladeshi Market. After obtaining the secondary data through anonymous sources the possible reduction amount of earthly resources and energy used to produce the unnecessary layer of packaging has been quantified. Study results show that vast amount of material and energy resources along with waste management cost can be conserved through eliminating iv unnecessary packaging. Alternatives with less environmental effect has been suggested analyzing the existing packages. Through this study, it has been found that 19.68 Million Liters of water and 858072.55 KWh electricity can be conserved if the alternative measures be taken. Generation of 1402.79 Tons of paper waste can be avoided and save nearly 34.40 crore TK. The waste management department can extricate upto 1430 waste truck trips and 13 lakhs of waste management cost annually.