Josh Brooks: Answers to questions on sustainability will leave packaging free to get on with its job

But not its owner, Tangerine Confectionery, which, to the horror of the national press, replaced the paper favourite with a plastic tube. The result? A 20% increase in sales and plans to take the product to a host of new markets.

More or less controversial changes of format, it appears, are all around us as 2010 begins. Sainsbury’s has moved its Basics chopped tomatoes into cartons (p4), while Asda has just begun trials of refillable bottles for conditioner.

As ever, much of this innovation is driven by the ever-increasing need for packaging’s environmental impact to be lessened, and has met the retort that a change in format or delivery will not decrease that impact but make it worse.

Answers to some of the sector’s questions, though, may become clearer in the month to come. Asda, for instance, is to reveal all on its Packaging Scorecard at this month’s easyFairs show; details of part two of the Courtauld Commitment could be published in February; and progress is being made on standard definitions for eco-measures by the Global CEO Forum.

The sooner the goalposts are stuck in the ground, the better. The arguments will continue, but at least then the industry can get on with changing packaging, like Tangerine has done, to make it even better at protecting and selling products.

On a separate note, the demise of Western Corrugated highlights the risks of failing to keep prices sustainable. The many comments left on packagingnews.co.uk by former employees paint a picture of a firm with a near-suicidal pricing policy.

Market economics dictate price wars will happen. But firms need to chase profit, not turnover. Western Corrugated’s closure should serve as a salutary lesson to customers and suppliers that fair prices must be charged – and paid.

Josh Brooks is editor of Packaging News