A manufacturer of popcorn based in South Yorkshire approached Environmental Technologies Centre of Industrial Collaboration (ETCIC) to conduct an investigation into the possibility of using popcorn as a loose fill packaging material.

The project consisted of the following:

• Identify cost of production of the popcorn and compare with costs of existing loose packaging material;
• Review of Packaging Regulations and other legal requirements to identify any issues related to the use of this material as a packaging product.

The company produce two types of popcorn, Butterfly and Mushroom. The mushroom popcorn is produced by adding popping corn into a hot air expansion chamber. This produces‘ball shaped’ popcorn and it is this that the Company propose to market as a packaging material. The company have approximately 30% available capacity at present which could be used to manufacture the product. They have also indicated that if the market is there and that the product is competitive then they would consider the purchase of further equipment to allow increased production.

There are no additives added during the process in the hot air expansion chamber so the product is therefore a totally natural material which should be beneficial if it is to be used in packaging.

The price of popping corn is being driven up by the increasing demand for crops for bio-fuels. Therefore land is being used to grow bio-fuel crops rather than popping corn, reducing the availability of the latter. As the popping corn are only for human consumption and are more difficult to grow, producers have tended to move away from it. Therefore prices have been increasing by as much as 30%.

A search of popcorn as a packaging material revealed that it has been used as a packaging material by a number of other companies. A Scottish based manufacturer of popcorn sell some of their product into the packaging market. The material is used by cosmetics company Lush to pack their soap and cosmetic products.

The search also showed that popcorn is used in USA on a small scale for packaging, a Dutch company was using it, and a company based in France has spent three years developing their popcorn product to be used as packaging. However this product is not loose fill packaging but popcorn sandwiched between sheets of paper.

Every year approximately 10 million tonnes of packaging waste is produced in the UK, the majority of which is disposed of in landfill sites. The European Commission has set targets for member states to recover and recycle packaging waste. By 31st December 2008, at least 60% of the UK’s packaging waste must be recovered, and 55-80% recycled.

A review of the regulations surrounding packaging identified that there are no negative issues or barriers associated with using popcorn as a packaging material.

The main Producer Responsibility Obligations for businesses that produce packaging materials are to minimise the amount of packaging used, ensure packaging can be reused or recycled, and to ensure that packaging does not contain high levels of certain heavy metals. Popcorn as a packaging material would comply with all of these obligations.

In addition to the Producer Responsibility Obligations, the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive contains certain requirements on packaging producers that would lend themselves nicely to using popcorn as a packaging material. These are as follows:

• Producers of packaging materials shall aim to reduce the quantity, and harmfulness to the environment, of materials and substances contained in packaging and packaging waste, in particular by developing 'clean` products and technology;
• Recycling shall mean the reprocessing in a production process of the waste materials for the original purpose or for other purposes including organic recycling but excluding energy recovery;
• Energy recovery shall mean the use of combustible packaging waste as a means to generate energy through direct incineration with or without other waste but with recovery of the heat;
• Organic recycling shall mean the aerobic (composting) or anaerobic (biomethanization) treatment, under controlled conditions and using micro-organisms, of the biodegradable parts of packaging waste, which produces stabilized organic residues or methane. Landfill shall not be considered a form of organic recycling;
• Packaging recoverable in the form of energy recovery from packaging waste shall have a minimum inferior calorific value to allow optimization of energy recovery;
• Packaging recoverable in the form of composting of packaging waste shall be of such a biodegradable nature that it should not hinder the separate collection and the composting process or activity into which it is introduced;
• Biodegradable packaging waste shall be of such a nature that it is capable of undergoing physical, chemical, thermal or biological decomposition such that most of the finished compost ultimately decomposes into carbon dioxide, biomass and water.

All of the above requirements lend themselves to popcorn being used as a packaging material. As a packaging material, popcorn would comply with the requirements and allow Packaging producers and users to meet their obligations.

Pricing

The company provided information on the manufacturing costs associated with the production of popcorn and the envisaged selling price that the company would want to achieve. These figures were compared against a selection of the most common loose fill packaging materials currently on the market to establish the viability of selling popcorn as packaging material. The comparison showed that when compared to loose fill packaging materials currently on the market, popcorn is on average £0.30 more expensive per cubic foot. When compared to a Bio-Degradable product (corn and potato starch based), that will compost in much the same way as popcorn, it is over £0.50 more expensive per cubic foot. Therefore at present it does not appear that using popcorn as a packaging material would be economically viable to the majority of businesses.

Markets

At present the market for popcorn as a packaging material is relatively limited due to the price, when compared to standard loose fill packaging materials. The type of company that would consider using popcorn for packaging would be one that views its environmental credentials as being very important to its customers, such as Lush, who are already using popcorn, Body Shop etc. However there are other products on the market, which like popcorn, are less environmentally harmful than the polystyrene based products, and at a lower price than popcorn, it is likely that businesses would opt for these.

As environmental issues become increasingly important to customers and are therefore pushed further up the supply chain, with demands being made on suppliers to operate their businesses in a more environmentally beneficial manner, then the market for the popcorn packaging material may begin to open up. The price difference between standard loose fill packaging and popcorn may begin to decrease in the future due to increases in the cost of petroleum based products. This may well impact on the production costs for loose fill packaging and therefore begin to allow popcorn to be seen as a viable option.