In 1997 the Italian pasta and baked goods manufacturer Barilla began to produce in-house ‘Guidelines for Sustainable Packaging Design’ which sought to (Barilla, 2014):
- minimise the volume of materials used,
- favour the use of recyclable packaging,
- maximise transport efficiencies (truck saturation),
- use paper packaging from sustainable forests
Then, in 2007, Barilla introduced its ‘LCA Packaging Designer’, a computer-based tool allowing the comparison of different packaging solutions to select those with the least environmental impact whilst preserving product quality. Thanks to this tool, and other improvement projects, in 2013, Barilla reached the point where 98% of its packaging was technically recyclable (compared to 85% in 2008).