Sustainability Approach for Sweetener Packaging and Its Effect on Consumer ’s Purchase Decision

Abstract

Flexible packaging is commonly used as primary packaging for consumer goods like powdered milk and sweeteners, mainly purposed to prevent any chemical, physical, or biological interaction that could potentially damage the product. It is constructed mainly by layers of plastic and aluminum to prevent risk of damage to the product. However, the use of such robust material has contributed to the majority of the plastic waste in the landfill. Therefore, companies have focused on reducing said material usage. This study focuses on the tearability of paper based Diabetasol Sweetener 50 x 1.5 g sachet against the existing sachet, market acceptance, and packaging optimization. The paper-based alternative sachet showed similar result in tearability as the existing sachet, both were perceived as easy to tear. A high acceptance rate of 96.7% was also achieved through the evaluation. Furthermore, the carton and cardboard box used for Diabetasol Sweetener (50 x 1.5 g) were conceptually optimized by reducing the overall packaging size. The optimized packaging had a reduction of 0.772725 kg or 40% of the original packaging measured from one cardboard box. Standardization was also done to prove the feasibility concept to be used on a large scale. This study suggested that sustainable packaging approaches are viable and promising for attracting consumers as well as reducing the amount of packaging waste in the landfills.