Sustainable Logistics Through Zero-Packaging

The article discusses the concept of zero-packaging grocery stores as a means to improve the social and environmental impacts of the food supply chain. The study found that these stores can bring about a more environmentally conscious and resource-efficient outlook, but may require changes in consumer behavior and supplier practices. Reducing packaging inefficiencies can also lead to increased material recycling, reduced transportation costs, and improved profit margins for logistics systems.

Questions & Answers on Contemporary
Logistics
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Answer 1:
The article chosen is on Contemporary Logistics, and after identifying “packaging” as
a dominant topic covered in the student material, is “The Prospects of Zero-Packaging
Grocery Stores to Improve the Social and Environmental Impacts of the Food Supply Chain”
by Beitzen-Heineke et al, published in 2017 at Journal of Cleaner Production.
The rationale of choosing such an article was that in today’s time, it is the aim of
every industry and company irrespective of their nature of operations and size, to lessen their
carbon footprint and make their functioning sustainable for the environment. Therefore, for
contemporary logistics as well, creating a sustainable manner of packaging will prove to be
beneficial for the long run.
The article points out that due to increased consumer awareness about environmental
and social responsibilities, food chains in various developed nations have been motivated in
the opening up of grocery stores which totally renounce the use of conventional packaging
materials, namely, disposable plastic bags, for selling their product range. The opportunities
which these stores offer is that, now focus is shifted on creating and using a more sustainable
system of retail, which is presently not much common and should be investigated more. The
article conducted semi-structured interviews with store representatives hailing from as many
as seven retail stores across the European nations, and also included six food-chain experts in
order to understand this area of sustainable packaging (Beitzen-Heineke, Balta-Ozkan and
Reefke, 2017).
It was found that, these stores apparently can bring about a more environmentally
conscious and resource efficient outlook and behaviour in suppliers and consumers to reduce
the inefficiencies and resource wastage hailing from packaging. The social benefits of such
conscious behavior change leads to – support of small, local farmers to attaining more
transparency in the supply chain and the creation of a better informed and more conscious
environment friendly consumer group. These benefits, however, can be achieved at the cost
of losing consumer convenience, as shopping operations can slow and the product varieties
also reduce (Beitzen-Heineke, Balta-Ozkan and Reefke, 2017).
The experts opine finally that wide adoption of this zero-packaging philosophy will
require further active efforts by the retail chains and food chains to influence consumer
behaviour, and also would require the suppliers to change their packaging practices. Further,
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for gaining further popularity, these zero-packaging stores need to adopt more strategies by
which their operations can match with the other conventional supermarkets (Beitzen-
Heineke, Balta-Ozkan and Reefke, 2017).
Question 2: How can reducing packaging inefficiencies improve the performance of a
logistics system?
Answer: Reducing inefficiencies associated with packaging leads to increase of savings
opportunities associated with logistics. Cost savings along with service improvements occur
from improved efficiency in packaging. Reduction in the amount of material required for
packaging leads to lower usage of resources, and thereby more value is generated from using
lesser amount of packaging material. This helps in increased material to be recycled and
subsequently reduces the money required to purchase new packaging material, reuse of the
already purchased material and subsequently improves the profit margins and efficiency of
the firm. By reducing packaging inefficiency, lesser material is used, lighter packaging leads
to saving of transportation costs, and overall value maximization occurs of the firm’s
resources (Hellström and Saghir, 2007).
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Reference List
Beitzen-Heineke, E. F., Balta-Ozkan, N. and Reefke, H. (2017) ‘The prospects of zero-
packaging grocery stores to improve the social and environmental impacts of the food supply
chain’, Journal of Cleaner Production, 140, pp. 1528–1541. doi:
10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.09.227.
Hellström, D. and Saghir, M. (2007) ‘Packaging and logistics interactions in retail supply
chains’, Packaging Technology and Science, 20(3), pp. 197–216. doi: 10.1002/pts.754.
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