EPS News Interview - Betsy Steiner Betsy Steiner is Executive Director of the US Alliance of Foam Packaging Recyclers, she talked to EPS News about the state of the EPS Packaging industry in America. What challenges face the EPS Industry in the US today? We worked hard to educate our customers and the general public about EPS. The fact is that EPS is no more environmentally damaging than any other packaging material. What steps did you take to educate your customers? Our strategy was two-pronged. Our members funded a programme aimed at industry users of EPS. We promoted our product by emphasising the importance of the packaging function and the key role that EPS packaging plays in protecting goods. We tackled the environmental issue by taking a considered look at issues around the manufacturing process, recycling, reuse, landfill and so on. When you look at EPS packaging in terms of the whole environmental picture it compares very favourably with other packaging materials. Our core audience was packaging buyers and packaging engineers. We reached them through trade advertising, letters, speaking at packaging shows, newsletters and our recycling programme.It was a long-term education programme. I would say it took four to five years to get a foothold and the second four to five years to cement the relationship. What was the result of this ten-year campaign? We have extremely committed customers who are loyal to EPS packaging and who feel comfortable answering any environmental questions about EPS. How did you communicate with the general public? We supported a multi-million dollar advertising campaign run by the American Plastics Council to promote plastics to the general public — the tag line was ‘Plastics make it possible’. The strategy here was two-fold. In the early stages the commercials rebutted the negative information about plastics. The latest campaign demonstrated the positive role that plastics play in all our lives. For example one shows a policeman wearing a bullet proof vest, another an emergency situation in a hospital where the hypodermics, the tubing and much of the equipment is plastic. Has this been successful? Extremely. The public education programme has reached a stage of completion. The public’s attitude to plastics in general and to EPS packaging in particular has changed. How has all this activity effected recycling rates in the US? Over the last five years we have maintained a healthy 10-12 per cent level of collection of all EPS packaging and we are very satisfied with that. What impact has all of this had on packaging buyers? Of course this is the bottom line. I am pleased to say that companies like Sony and Cannon use EPS packaging very heavily and demonstrate good product loyalty. This is a great achievement given the negative climate that we were working in ten years ago.
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We have already faced and overcome our toughest challenge. Ten years ago there was a great deal of negative misinformation about EPS and some environmental groups were attacking us hard.
