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Good things do come in small packages ...

Ten firms bag NEA’s very first 3R Packaging Awards

ESTHER NG

estherng@mediacorp.com.sg

IF YOU’VE been ordering Kentucky Fried Chicken’s (KFC) home-delivered Couple Meal or Family Meal in the past few months, you would have noticed that the box holding the four pieces of chicken has gotten much smaller, and the small plastic bags and napkins have gotten thinner.

By reducing the amount of paper and plastic used for packaging, KFC saved 41 metric tonnes of paper and 2.9 metric tonnes of plastic, or over $40,000, within a year.

“We used to have ‘chicken running around’ in our old delivery boxes, which were bigger. Now with a more compact size, our drivers can pack two instead of one box in their delivery bags,” said KFC’s senior manager of supply chain management Philip Ng.

Meanwhile, Tiger Beer drinkers will find that their favourite glass of beer is now much lighter. In the past one year, Asia Pacific Breweries has reduced the weight of its quart glass bottle from 520g to 500g as well as the base of its 330ml and 323ml aluminium cans for all its brands of beer from 0.285mm to 0.280mm. The minute changes enabled the company to save 79.8 metric tonnes of glass and 36 metric tonnes of aluminium a year.

KFC and Asia Pacific Breweries are just two of 10 companies that have won the National Environment Agency’s (NEA)inaugural 3R Packaging Awards.

The other winners are: Tetra Pak Jurong, Boncafe International, Chinatown Food Corporation; F&N Coca Cola; McDonald’s; Nestle Singapore; Subway Singapore and Sunfresh Singapore.

The awards are given to the NEA’s Singapore Packaging Agreement signatories that have made notable efforts in their public waste minimisation programmes and to reduce packaging waste at source.

And with prices of raw materials fluctuating, more companies might see the benefit of reducing their packaging.

“Prices of raw materials have gone up2.5 times in the last four years while retail price of food products have increased by20 per cent. However, F&B manufacturers have been absorbing the increased cost of raw materials. But if companies reduced their packaging, they can save on raw material cost,” said Mr Sunny Koh, deputy chairman of the Singapore Packaging Governing Board.

Since the launch of the Agreement in June last year, more than 500 signatories, mostly from the food and beverage industry, have collectively reduced packaging waste by as much as 17 per cent, or about 850 metric tonnes, within a year.

Said Mr Lee Huen Yee, chief executive officer of the NEA: “The reduction of 850 metrictonnes isn’t a lot but it’s encouraging for a start.” He added that 31 more companies in the F&B sector, including Delifrance andBengawan Solo, have joined the Agreement.

“We’re hoping to get the toiletries industry on board. People these days like to use liquid soap without realising that the bottle is added packaging. And there’s too much packaging in perfumes,” he said.

The 3R Packaging Awards will be given out by Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister for Environment and Water Resources, at a ceremony during the International Solid Waste Association Congress on Nov 3.