Consumer Research Reports Summary May 29th, 2013

Posted on Box.com Packaging Satisfaction Survey https://pac.box.com/s/x3lz5tge3107kwy5s44o What Consumers Really Care About https://pac.box.com/s/tlc0mnwyhqdasdhov52i CPIA Report - Access to Plastics Recycling in Canada https://pac.box.com/s/uw6extomijxw8tifepgn

Purpose: Studied shopping habits and consumer satisfaction with packaging from store shelf to transport, storage, use and disposal Surveyed 3,000 U.S. consumers in Fall 2012

Highlights: Discovered that there is a significant variation in packaging satisfaction across all product categories Consumers say “shelf appeal” features are less important than “structural” features Top dissatisfaction themes across all product categories: Maintain the integrity of the product Get the entire product out of the package Easy to open and reclose There is opportunity to improve performance as part of the overall product experience (shifts in packaging’s role on shelf) E-commerce and changing retail landscape - Majority (72%) do not use mobile device while shopping

Purpose: Help companies with their sustainability commitment to gain a market advantage Focus on food packaging technologies and the U.S. consumer Description of research methodology not provided

Highlights: How do you know a product is green? 48.8% Ingredients content, energy savings detail 39.7% Labels say so 31% Company has green reputation 48% of Americans say corporate environmental reputation impacts product choices What is the best thing to read about a product’s packaging? 27.7% Recyclable 17.4% Biodegradable 14.7% Made of recycled content

Highlights (cont’d): Most Americans care about recycling and like less packaging, but they are confused about what constitutes “sustainable packaging” “Sustainability” is about ingredients and sourcing; product over package in the food category Food Waste is an issue many Americans feel really guilty about, and there’s an opportunity for brands to come together and empower Americans to solve that problem

Purpose: Provides insight into recycling access in Canada. “Access” is defined in this study as residential municipal curbside or depot recycling programs, and private subscriptions programs for a variety of plastic packaging types. May 2013 update by CM Consulting provides estimates of recycling access in terms of permanent households covered and as a percent of population Acknowledges that the challenge of presenting “access to recycling” is that it does not reflect what actually gets recycled, which is dependent on consumers actually recycling the material when they have access

Highlights: Overall, access to recycling of the primary plastic materials is very strong. Nearly 100% of Canadians have access to recycling of PET and HDPE beverage containers, and other types of bottles and jugs. Access to recycling of the other resins and types of plastics vary. Access to film and bags recycling now at 61%. This represents an increase from 53% in 2009 with the increase predominantly in Quebec.

Highlights (cont’d): - Access to recycling of PET non‐bottle rigid containers has risen to 89% from 73% in 2009. PS non‐bottle rigids are also accepted in more programs and has risen to 54% from 41% in 2009. These increases are due predominantly to more and more municipalities expanding collection to all plastic containers, particularly in Ontario.

Summary of findings: Packaging performance and function critical to consumers; no trade-offs for sustainability Recycling remains a top-of-mind packaging sustainability feature for consumers Level of access in Canada to recycling plastic packaging is nearly universal for the most common packaging plastics and over 80% for most resins Important to note that “access to recycling” does not reflect what actually gets recycled, which is dependent on consumers actually recycling the material

GROUP DISCUSSION

Should PAC NEXT consider pursuing a biennial study of access to all packaging material categories? Is there group interest to understand how policy affects consumer engagement?