如今，在食品包装方面，品牌和制造商面临着无尽的选择和权衡。采取奶酪包装选项。从单独的箔卷楔到包装自己的果皮到包装的一轮Camembert，再到塑料包装的单身，再到可重新修复的塑料袋的切碎奶酪，众多选项都反映了更广泛的包装设计的趋势。但是，哪个是最具成本效益的选择？哪个造成浪费较少？是什么支持最长的保质期？在当今的食品系统中，这些问题与每个包装的食品都相关 - 包装设计不仅决定了多少包装浪费，而且还决定了产生多少食物浪费的作用。

From a packaging perspective, the more sustainable option is often assumed to be the option that looks the most natural, or organic — the one with less plastic, or less material overall. In many cases this is true, but the assessment of "sustainability" becomes more complex when the package’s contents are food — one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions when mismanaged and wasted.

In its recent U.S. Climate Summit, the Biden administration set the ambitious goal of reducing GHG emissions in the U.S. by 50 to 52 percent by 2030, compared to 2005 levels. It remains critical to keep the significant climate impact of the food system top of mind. The energy used to produce food and transport it to our plates is enormous. According to a联合国研究，由人类活动引起的全球温室气体排放的三分之一可以归因于我们生产，加工和包装食品的方式。尽管用来创造这种食物的所有能量，但在美国，我们将价值4300万美元的价值扔进垃圾填埋场, where food waste emits greenhouse gases as it decomposes.

自从全球食品供应链和工业食品制造业的最早日子以来，食品，食品包装和环境影响一直存在。在封闭的循环合作伙伴中，我们投资于创建创新，无浪费的解决方案以防止资源损失的公司和业务模型。在查看包装和食物的交叉点时，我们相信为前进的过程设置课程始于三个初始步骤。

1. Consider the tradeoffs

让我们重新审视奶酪包装选项。总体而言，在自己的皮肤或包装较少的情况下，选择更大的份量似乎对环境负责，理由是包装越越好。理想情况下，所使用的包装是可回收或可堆肥的。对于将在一定时间内食用所有奶酪的家庭，这些选择几乎没有包装可能是最低的废物选择。但是，如果不是所有的奶酪在变质之前都被吃掉呢？如果选择了较小的包装比例，则可以避免这种食物浪费。如今，有31％的购物者大量购买新鲜农产品，以避免不必要的包装。旨在减少包装浪费时，这是一种有效的策略。但是有53％的消费者表示，他们批量购买时浪费了更多的食物。根据全国零废物​​委员会的说法，对于许多类型的食物，“不预先包装食品所取得的任何温室气体减少也很快就超过了minor increase in food waste."

57% of U.S. consumers want more resealable packages, and 50% want more variety in product sizes.

As eating and cooking habits change, more consumers today are looking for packaging that caters to storing food in their kitchens for longer, using small quantities at a time or buying smaller quantities at a time. Fifty-seven percent of U.S. consumers want more resealable packages, and 50 percent want more variety in product sizes. Particularly, they want to see baked goods, bagged salad, bread and meat available in smaller package sizes. How can we ensure that these preferences, which align with a reduction in food waste, can be met with more sustainable packaging options?

2. Invest in smarter packaging design

Innovation in packaging design can help reconcile the tradeoff between food waste and excess packaging. Smarter packaging works not only for the benefit of the food it contains, but also for the retailers and customers it serves. Emerging "active" and "intelligent" technologies help slow spoilage, giving information on food quality or safety, as well as enabling transparency across supply chains.

Where are we seeing progress? Closed Loop Partners invests in companies across the food and agriculture sector to strengthen every stage of the value chain — from farm to transport, retail, consumption, waste collection, food scrap and organics processing and back to the farm. We have invested in TradeLanes, a company that digitizes trade execution for container ships, increasing transparency in the global trade system to make the process faster, easier and more profitable. By better understanding where and when goods are in port versus in transit, we can ensure the right storage and create the optimal conditions for the transportation of food.

我们还投资了Mori，该公司拥有商业化的基于丝绸的可食用涂料，以防止运输和零售业中的食物变质，并减少包装的需求。它的创新 - 直接应用于食物，薄膜以取代塑料的涂料 - 可以应用于整体或切割农产品，准备好的食物，生肉，海鲜和加工食品。食用涂层是安全的，无形的，无味的，几乎无法检测到的。因为它可以使食物更加新鲜更长，所以浪费的食物更少，这使种植者，农民，托运人，加工机，零售商，消费者和星球都受益。

Improved package design and active and intelligent packaging also have a combined net annual financial benefit of $4.13 billion.

3.协作以加速系统性变化

To create system-wide change, stakeholders across the plastics and packaging and food and agriculture sectors and recovery systems need to be at the table together. We’ve seen the power of collaboration thanks to our work in theNextGen联盟, launched by our Center for the Circular Economy to convene leading brands, industry experts and innovators to reimagine foodservice packaging and reduce waste. The Center’s new Compostable Packaging Consortium is deploying a similar pre-competitive, collaborative approach to identifying greater opportunities for the recovery of compostable packaging, in particular the role packaging can play in increasing food waste diversion from landfills.

根据这项工作，我们正在与可持续包装联盟（SPC）及其新倡议合作，Food Waste Repackaged. The initiative brings together experts and innovators to address the urgent challenge of food waste, exploring and advancing the role of packaging in addressing this waste in consumers' homes, food service and retail and spurring new packaging innovations. Closed Loop Partners is proud to partner with SPC, together with GreenBiz, Packaging Europe, ReFED, RILA and Ubuntoo, on a Learning Series, Innovation Challenge and Mentorship Program to help tackle this problem.

当经过深思熟虑和协作时，减少包装和设计创新会带来强大的环境，经济和社会利益。防止食物浪费是气候变化的最佳解决方案，包装设计的变化可能会有所帮助防止650,000吨食物浪费在美国一年改进的包装设计以及主动且智能包装的年度净财务收益合41.3亿美元。催化这些解决方案，并邀请多个利益相关者进行对话，使我们更近一步建立了一个更高效，浪费较低的食品系统。