How to Reduce Food Packaging Waste
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Food packaging waste creates environmental and commercial challenges for food businesses. The packaging materials that catch the eye of passing customers, and elevate their eating experience, often significantly contribute to the volume of packaging waste generated across the UK every year. This is particularly relevant to sectors like festival catering and seasonal event food service , where being able to demonstrate efforts to reduce packaging waste is often part of the requirement of operating in these spaces.
With the right approach to reducing waste, you can meet sustainability goals while streamlining counter operations, cutting food waste and strengthening your supply chain. In this blog, we share practical ways to reduce packaging waste across your business.
Right-size packaging using structural design rather than adding layers
One of the most effective ways to reduce packaging waste is to use the correct packaging size. Over-sized boxes , trays or containers naturally increase both material costs and waste volume.
For fragile products, better fit packaging removes the need for excess packaging while improving protection. Many businesses using kraftboard and other cardboard-based packaging, such as chip trays , find they now no longer require secondary plastics or additional cardboard fillers.
Choose recyclable, lower-impact materials where possible
Switching from difficult-to-recycle plastics to biodegradable materials such as bagasse and palm leaf is an easy way to reduce your environmental footprint, while providing customers with attractive and convenient ways to enjoy their food. While plastic packaging still has an appropriate place in some high-moisture or hygiene-critical environments, choosing formats such as Colpac sandwich packs that are recyclable or made with less rigid plastic reduces overall waste.
Cardboard packaging, glass bottles and metal containers generally achieve higher recycling rates than single-use plastics, such as plastic straws, plastic bags or thin plastic film.
Businesses can also cut packaging waste by choosing materials produced with lower carbon inputs, reducing reliance on fossil fuels and natural gas in the manufacturing process. This step helps businesses demonstrate meaningful progress in reducing their overall packaging footprint.
Reduce unnecessary layers of packaging
Excess packaging is often implemented as a reaction to previous problems such as transit damage or presentation issues. However, adding more cardboard packaging, plastic wrap or paper bags rarely solves the root cause. Instead, it increases packaging waste generated across your operations.
Using stronger packaging structure can eliminate redundant layers entirely. Products like kraft food boxes have reinforced folds, improved box shapes and stronger board grades that provide stability without the need for additional packaging. This reduces waste, saves raw materials and helps staff work more efficiently during busy dispatch periods.
Improve product protection to reduce food waste
Food waste is closely connected to packaging waste. Damaged products often need to be discarded, generating further waste of both food and packaging materials.
Protective, transit-ready food packaging for delicate high-value items like cakes reduces the likelihood of breakages, meaning fewer items are rejected on arrival. This is particularly important for businesses supplying hotels or catering venues , where presentation standards are high and food waste can be costly.
Audit your packaging materials and performance
Regularly reviewing your packaging helps you understand how much packaging is being used, how much becomes waste and where improvements can be made. Many businesses start by looking at their cardboard packaging volumes, the amount of discarded plastic produced on site and whether rigid plastic or single-use plastics could be replaced with biodegradable or recyclable alternatives. You should also look to identify points in the supply chain where packaging failure leads to food waste, as this often signals that materials are not performing as intended.
Even small adjustments, such as replacing excess plastic film with right-sized cardboard packaging, can significantly reduce waste and improve workflow. By understanding how your packaging behaves in real-world conditions, you can cut material use, manage costs more effectively and strengthen your sustainability performance.
Looking to sharpen your environmental impact and identify areas to improve efficiency? Register your iKrafts trade account or call us on 0161 341 0737 and we will give you a free 30-minute material optimisation test, where we will review your current packaging and pinpoint areas where we can improve your performance, lower your overall costs and reduce your environmental impact.
