We just received this picture via email and it made us laugh. We thought that you might like it too.  A very novel re-use of packaging to minimise scarce resources. Have a guess from which northern UK country it originated? Chris

Novel re-use for Tennants Lager packaging

I think this is a fantastic idea – the barcode needs to be there anyway, so why not make a feature of it.  Obviously it’s more suited to certain areas of the market than others – I’m not sure a patient would appreciate finding one of these on a medicine, but then again on a more everyday or fun item I think it could be a great area to add some individuality and extra branding. (Jane)

While most Western manufacturers focus their marketing on the front of a product, a growing number of Japanese firms are branding the barcodes on the reverse as well. The black and white etchings contain sufficient detail to be recognised by scanners, while also incorporating the firms logo or an image associated with the product.

via Branded barcodes cheer Japanese shoppers – Telegraph.

Looks a lovely pack and will be much easier to wrap at Christmas -  just goes to show that becoming more environmently friendly doesn’t have to mean loss of style or shelf presence.  It will be interesting to see how the packs withstand possible transit damage.  The tins always seemed very prone to picking up ‘dints’ on shelf.  I hope the pack does really well and look forward to seeing more of the ‘bought to share’ chocolate brands move this way.  (Jane)

Cadbury is trialling a cardboard replacement for its traditional Roses chocolates tin in a bid to reach its packaging weight reduction targets for seasonal and gift packaging.

via Cadbury replaces Roses tin with cardboard box | packagingnews.co.uk.

from Simeon Goldstein, packagingnews.co.uk, 11 August 2009

THINGS ARE HOTTING-UP ON THE LEGAL FRONT! Under the Producer Responsibility Requirements (Packaging Waste) Regulations, firms that handle more than 50 tonnes of packaging a year and generate a turnover bigger than £2m are required to register with the EA or compliance scheme.

Many companies have ignored this legislation and clearly ‘flouted the law’. Following recent prosecutions (see our other reports in our ‘legal section‘ ), a West Sussex jewellery importer is now the latest firm to be prosecuted under these regulations after it was fined more than £6,200 last week. Burgess Hill-based Icon Live imports and sells jewellery and pleaded guilty to not recovering and recycling packaging waste in 2006 and 2007.

Read the whole article at: Jewellery firm fined £6,000 under packaging waste rules | packagingnews.co.uk.

Article By Chris Penfold Design Cognition

We’ve been having an interesting debate in the office over the past few days regarding the importance of innovative packaging for the CD market and how it could help CDs compete with the download market. Affiliated to this is the need to move forward in innovative ways in a market that is becoming more and more impacted by environmental concerns.

Many CD producers are trying to cut costs to compete but is that the right thing to do? And will it not just reduce packaging to a worthless commodity item that is just seen as waste?

During that debate we came up with some interesting insights and thought that it would be good to share them with you and elicit any comments that you might have.

 

 

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