A Takeaway Container You Can Eat and the Individually Wrapped Prune
The 2011 Unpackit Packaging Awards recently took place. Wanaka Wastebusters ran the awards as part of the Unpackit Demystifying Packaging Choices project and with over 100 product nominations and near to 9,000 votes, the winners of the best and worst packaging were recently announced.
The Best Award went to the Potato Pak. Made in New Zealand the takeaway containers made from potato starch waste from potato chip production. They can be composted, fed to birds, pigs or fish and even eaten by humans!
Runners up for the Best Award went to the Speights swap-a-crates, promoting reuse and recycling of used beer bottles and the humble egg carton – reusable, recyclable and made from recycled paper.
The Worst Award went to the ridiculous Sunsweet Ones – individually wrapped prunes, each prune providing waste for landfill.
Runners up for poor producer packaging responsibility went to were Brother Ink Cartridges for excessive, non-recyclable packaging and Cadbury’s Drinking Chocolate which comes in a ‘tin’ made from foil and cardboard destined for landfill.
The awards highlighted that even the best packaging does not have to be presented with glitz and glam and reflected customers’ awareness of good and bad packaging in relation to how wasteful it is.
