Over the previous football season, Packaging Europe got involved in a packaging sustainability collaboration with a local youth football team, with a view to learning about young consumer habits and behaviour.
The Heigham Park Rangers under-18s team, based in Norwich, UK, played the 2023-24 season in shirts emblazoned with the logo of the Sustainable Packaging Summit. Staying hydrated is important when playing sports (even in cold and rainy English conditions) so choices and attitudes around water packaging were the logical focus of the experiment.
Players were asked to keep a record of how they chose to bring water to matches and how many individual bottles they used over the course of the season. At the end of the season in June 2024, they were also asked their opinions on what format was the most environmentally friendly.
What results is a small-sample snapshot of differing behaviours, differing perceptions of sustainability – and the familiar gap between consumer ideas and actions.
First, we asked the players how they brought their drinks to the pitch. Most reported that they either purchased their drinks in a single-use plastic bottle, or else filled a plastic or metal reusable cup with water from a tap.
| How did you usually bring water to football this season? | Number of players |
|---|---|
| Filling a single-use plastic bottle with tap water | 2 |
| Tap water in a reusable metal bottle | 5 |
| Tap water in a reusable, plastic bottle | 5 |
| Tap water in a reusable, glass bottle | 1 |
| Water from a shop in a single-use plastic bottle | 5 |
In terms of the average number of bottles used throughout the season, it is unsurprising that single-use plastic bottles from a shop were miles ahead of the other options, by virtue of their purpose as disposable packaging. Notably, some players refilled their single-use bottles with tap water.
| How many individual bottles do you think you used over the course of the season? | Average number of bottles used per type |
|---|---|
| Filling a single-use plastic bottle with tap water | 2.5 |
| Tap water in a reusable metal bottle | 1 |
| Tap water in a reusable, plastic bottle | 1.2 |
| Tap water in a reusable, glass bottle | 2 |
| Water from a shop in a single-use plastic bottle | 17.2 |
However, when asked about the packaging formats they believed to be the most environmentally friendly, single-use plastic came dead last – as did tap water in a reusable glass bottle. Instead, reusable metal bottles topped the ranking.
| In your opinion, what is best for the environment? | Responses |
|---|---|
| Reusable metal bottle | 10 |
| Reusable plastic bottle | 4 |
| Water from shop, refill with tap water until it breaks, then recycle | 3 |
| Tap water in a reusable, glass bottle | 0 |
| Water from a shop in a single-use plastic bottle | 0 |
Evidently, there is a disconnect between theory and practice when it comes to consuming water bottles. As members of the packaging industry, it is worth asking ourselves where that comes from, and what we can do to ensure that consumers identify and use the most environmentally sound packaging possible.
Going forward, we at Packaging Europe would be interested in conducting a Life Cycle Analysis based on the data collected; i.e., the packaging formats of choice and the frequency at which they were used. The results would provide an unbiased view of each pack’s environmental impact, which could be reported back to the players – allowing them to make educated decisions about their bottle usage in the future.
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