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The finalists in the 2013 Unpackit Packaging Awards have been announced.

Unpackit spokesperson Sue Coutts said the shortlisting panel had a tough job choosing the 16 finalists from 424 nominations. Twice as many nominations were put in compared with 2012.

Ms Coutts said that companies really sat up and took notice when they were nominated by their customers for an Unpackit award.

“Consumer feedback drives change because companies have to care what their customers think or they’ll lose business.” said Ms Coutts. “People are making a big difference just by putting nominations in. This year companies got in touch with us quicker than ever when their products popped up in the nominations list.”

“When we went to stores and supermarkets around the country looking for product samples for the shortlisting process we couldn’t find some of the worst packaging nominated out on the shelves.” said Ms Coutts. “Vacuum packed lamb legs, each leg lashed onto two polystyrene meat trays with plastic wrap, were photographed in Glen Innes on May 22nd and nominated.  The following week the double wrap and the tray were gone, they were just being sold in the vacuum pack.”

Bad packaging attracted the most nominations, with 287 for the worst award and 137 for the best.

“Bad packaging is just rubbish after all.” said Ms Coutts. “Multi packs feature on the worst list with so called ‘convenience’ food’s like Snappz pre-sliced ‘fresh’ apples in plastic bags and Twist mini size fruit drinks in tetrapak. Both create unnecessary rubbish, contain a small amount of product and come at a premium price.”

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“NZ’s coffee habit has put single use containers back on the worst packaging shortlist.” said Ms Coutts. “Almost all of Nespresso’s single serve aluminium coffee capsules and the 180 million disposable coffee cups New Zealanders use each year are on a one way trip to the dump.”

“The best packaging speaks for itself.” said Ms Coutts “These companies take the pain out of shopping. They do the hard work for us so we don’t have to dither in the aisles endlessly comparing labels. We can take recyclability for granted.”

“ecostore are completely transparent with customers about the work that is going on behind the scenes to improve on the packaging they have on the shelves. David Trubridge’s seed system covers off carbon footprint issues with “freight friendly kit sets”.

“Amazon Kindle’s frustration free packaging reduces ‘wrap rage’. It’s 100% recyclable, easy to open and protects the product.”  said Ms Coutts “On the other hand Dell seem to be stuck in the 1990’s. The glowing statements in their corporate marketing material don’t carry through into their packaging. Monitors arrive in Russian doll style cartons. The 4 different packaging materials are beautifully labeled, but only the cardboard can go in the kerbside collection. The leftover pile of polystyrene and assorted plastic bags becomes 43 litres of instant rubbish for most people.”

The winners of the Unpackit Packaging Awards will be chosen by public vote. Voting opens Sat July 27 at www.unpackit.org.nz and will close on November 8 after which the winners will be announced.

8 finalists for Unpackit Best packaging award; Amazon Kindle, Re-think produce bag, Green man refillable beer bottles, LUSH toothy tabs, ecostore, WashBar horse & hound, David Trubridge seed system, Chelsea’s sugar in a paper bag.

8 finalists for Unpackit Worst packaging award; Disposable coffee cups, Twist tetrapak mini’s, Snappz ‘fresh’ apple multi-packs, Nespresso coffee capsules, Dell computer monitor, Sun dishwasher tablets, Fruit and veges on polystyrene meat trays, Frenz egg carton.

Tags: green design