Bacardi is cutting down on the number of cardboard gift boxes used for its brands, intending to lower its cardboard use by around 100 tons in the first year.
Among other brands, its Bombay Sapphire gin, Dewar’s White Label Blended Scotch whisky, Martini sparkling wines will sell fewer cardboard gift boxes – a move set to complement its mission of removing single-use plastics from its gift packs.
Initially aiming to remove 100% of single-use plastic from its gift range by the end of 2023, the company has sought to design such materials out of its packaging and has reportedly eliminated nearly 275 tons every year since the target was set four years ago.
Any remaining paper and cardboard packaging is both PEFC- and FSC-certified, according to Bacardi.
“We are incredibly proud of what we have achieved to date but we want to go one step further,” says Rodolfo Nervi, vice president of Safety, Quality and Sustainability. “We don’t want to just redesign our packaging to remove plastic, we want to do all we can to reduce our cardboard packaging too.
“We are not standing still. We are constantly innovating. For more than 160 years, our iconic brands have reflected the changing tastes of each new generation of consumers. Today, consumers want drinks that are made in the most environmentally responsible way possible and so do we.”
The announcement comes after Bacardi’s plans to remove non-refillable fitments from its bottles in the US, Canada, Puerto Rico, Spain and Portugal. Announced last year, the shift was intended to save around 140 tons of single-use plastic every year.
Other alcohol brands have set their sights on waste reduction via smart packaging. The Spirit of Manchester Distillery previously applied new labels from The Label Makers to its Manchester Gin bottles, with an on-pack QR code featuring in a sustainability trail run in conjunction with Avery Dennison.
In a move geared more closely towards consumer relations, Molson Coors’ ‘El alma de Madrid’ campaign for its Madrí Excepcional brand involved the use of on-pack QR codes, granting lager drinkers access to its ‘Conectada’ platform.
On the other hand, Smurfit Kappa’s paper-based ‘Frustration-Free’ packaging for wine multipacks was nominated for a Sustainability Award this year under the commercialized E-commerce category.
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