YOU may not have heard the term ‘residual product wastage’, but I am sure you are aware of the phenomenon. I am referring to that last bit of ketchup that cannot be expelled from the bottle, the remnants of a body lotion that refuse to be pumped out, or for that matter, those millilitres of mosquito repellent that cannot be sprayed however much you press the trigger, and that expensive sunscreen lotion that cannot be used till the last drop.
What is frustrating in all these cases is that you are aware that there is still a considerable amount of the product left in the container, but you cannot access it!
But what should make you angry is that no manufacturer considers the quantity of residual product wastage while pricing the product. So, obviously, consumers pay even for the quantity that they do not get to use. To put it differently, the loss to the consumer is directly proportional to the quantity that is not accessible. And this quantity varies, depending on the nature of the product, such as its viscosity, elasticity, adhesion, as well as the type of packaging used, such as pump dispensers, squeeze bottles, tubes, aerosol cans and glass bottles with narrow openings. And the loss from such residual product wastage could go up to as much as 10 per cent to 26 per cent!
If you look around your house, you will notice that such product waste is prevalent across sectors – food, personal care, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. Check the tubes that carry your hand cream, sunscreen, face cream, and even pharmaceutical products such as gels and ointments. You will not be able to fully squeeze out the content. It is the same case with disinfectants, insecticides, deodorants, hair sprays and even pain-relief sprays. Body creams and hand creams in plastic pump dispensers, plastic squeeze bottles and glass bottles with narrow openings containing ketchup, a variety of sauces, mayonnaise, all pose similar problems.
Women would have also noticed similar wastage with lipsticks.
While hard plastic pump dispensers and even squeeze bottles can be cut (though not easy) to gauge the loss and use up the content, there is no way of knowing the quantity that is wasted in metal aerosol spray cans, or for that matter, products in tubes. So, one can imagine the cumulative loss that we suffer individually, and as a class.
I have cut open pump dispensers of 400 ml containing body moisturisers and found residual wastage of 50 to 60 ml and calculated the loss at Rs 35 and Rs 48 based on the unit price. Imagine, you are losing money from a variety of packages every month!
A study published in Sustainability, an academic journal from MDPI, in January this year quantifies the amount of residue left behind in different kinds of packaging used in the cosmetics industry. The loss to the consumer from hand creams sold in pump dispensers ranged from 12.56 to 26.65 per cent, depending on factors such as the length of the dip tube of the pump or the planarity of the bottom of the bottle, besides of course the properties of the cream.
Hand cream sold in tubes retained as much as 9.82 per cent to 20.17 per cent, in many cases on account of the rigid shoulder area. While for creamy products, jars and airless pump dispensers demonstrate the highest emptiability (they retain less than 1 per cent of the product), for liquids such as shampoos, flexible pouches are better than rigid bottles, concludes the study. (‘Product waste resulting from insufficient emptiability of cosmetic packaging and its economic and environmental implications’, Klein et al).
The study pertains to products sold in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, but we can use it as a reference point because in this globalised world, most of these are manufactured and sold by multinational companies and their packaging remains the same even in India.
In recent years, this issue of insufficient product evacuation from containers is gaining much traction because besides the financial loss to the consumer, there is also considerable economic loss from the wastage of products. But more importantly, there is a lot of concern over the negative environmental impact on account of the increased complexity and cost of recycling them because of the residual material. On the other hand, improper residual cleaning affects the quality of the recyclate.
Considering all factors, manufacturers must change their packaging to minimise residual wastage. Till then, they must absorb the cost of the quantity wasted. They also need to indicate on the package the quantity left behind in the package, so that consumers can avoid those containers that cause them substantial loss.
Under the Consumer Protection Act, not providing the quantity promised is an unfair trade practice and manufacturers should be held accountable for it. The Consumer Affairs Ministry as well as the Ministry of Environment need to ensure, through laws, that packages protect consumer rights and support sustainability.