Reduce, Recycle, Reuse! Bag In Box as the packaging of our future!

12th Dec 2021 | Boyan Yovev

For a very long time, I have been planning on writing an article?regarding the environmental credentials of Bag In Box packaging. We all know that it is modern nowadays to talk about the circular economy, eco-friendly, biodegradable and compostable packaging, sustainability and so on, and let me be very straight – this was a much needed and anticipated discussion in the packaging sector, especially plastics. We were all avoiding these topics in the past 10-20 years, while in reality, we truly need to dedicate our energy on finding packaging products, solutions and materials that will reduce packaging waste, reduce food waste, and improve recycling rates.

I am a big fan of the new positive packaging mantra –?REDUCE, RECYCLE, REUSE! That’s the future!

In the past 10 years I have been totally dedicated and actively dealing with plastic packaging solutions – printed foils, bags, trays, bottles, etc. and have accumulated tons of knowledge regarding the environmental impact that some of the packaging solutions, I offer to my customers, are having on our planet and the nature.

Of course, some of these solutions have not so positive environmental credentials, but some of them have really good ones, and one of the excellent examples for this is Bag In Box packaging. Below I will try to list some of the most important points related to Bag In Box packaging and why it is considered an eco-friendly packaging solution for liquids and beverages.

First of all, Bag In Box packaging is reducing the amount of materials used per liter of product consumed by?fitting more product inside one piece of packaging. The standard size of Bag In Box retail bags is 3L or 5L, which means 3-5 times less glass bottles or tetra bricks are used for the same amount of packaged product. The Bag In Box HoReCa formats for wine, juice, edible oil, liquid eggs, fruit preparations, and condiments start from 5L and the standard sizes are usually 10L, and in many cases 15L or 20L. So, you can imagine how much materials one is saving by using a larger packaging format for their liquid products.

Second, Bag In Box packaging is?lowering the amount of food waste by increasing the shelf life?of the products packed inside. In the table below we are listing some examples:

You can clearly see that the shelf life of all product groups above is improved in all cases by a minimum of 50%-100%, and very often this rate reaches a lot higher levels.

You may rightfully ask – how is this even possible, where is the catch? Well, there is no catch and it is pretty straight forward – Bag In Box packaging formats are usually coming with dispensing taps/caps that do not allow air to get inside the bag during dispensing/discharging, which prevents fast product deterioration. For example, when you open a bottle of wine, immediately air comes into the bottle and into contact with the wine,?and the oxidation process starts, which automatically means that this wine will be suitable for drinking only for some few more days, usually 3-5 days. If you buy a 3-liter Bag In Box wine box, equipped with standard no-air-return wine tap, you can consume it safely even one or two months after opening. Increasing shelf life and decreasing food waste shell be a priority in the years to come, and Bag In Box can really help with that.

Furthermore, Bag In Box packaging brings significant CO2 savings by optimizing transportation and logistics operations and costs. Bag In Box is a light weight packaging and the bags come deflated, which means there is no transportation of empty space - air. For example, on one standard pallet you can fit around 6.000 to 7.000 empty 3L Bag In Box wine or juice bags, which is equivalent to 18.000 to 21.000 liters of ready wine or juice product after filling. In order to transport glass bottles, for the same amount of ready wine and juice products, you will need a minimum of 10-15 pallets. Can you just imagine this difference in transported pallets? It is indeed huge. The same is true for transporting empty HDPE containers and buckets, tin containers and buckets, and PET bottles (if they are not blown locally at the factory). Additionally, Bag In Box outer boxes are usually with a cube or rectangular shape, which translates into maximum usage of pallet space during transportation of ready products. There is considerably less air compared to transporting bottles or buckets and this means transferring more product per pallet, thus savings on transport costs and emitting less CO2 per pallet.

Finally, the disposal process of Bag in Box packaging is fairly simple and easy, because the outer box is 100% recyclable cardboard fiber material, and customers can recycle it in the existing recycling streams, while the inner plastic bag is deflated when empty and when separated from the tap/cap can be also recycled in the existing recycling streams. Deflated bag means considerably less volume of plastic waste going to the waste fields or recycling facilities, which translates into fewer number of trucks driving back and forth, thus less CO2 emissions.

As a conclusion, we can clearly say that if a company wants to decrease the amount of packaging per liter of product it currently uses; wants to lower their CO2 emissions by transporting fewer pallets of raw materials and ready products, or decrease food waste by offering packaging formats that extend the shelf life of its products – Bag In Box will be your solution.

And REMEMBER - REDUCE, RECYCLE, REUSE!

That’s the future!