Mark your calendar: Webinar: Packaging Sustainability 2021 runs November 2, and it's one we'd put on your list even if your case has never had a single complaint about wax paper.
Packaging has quietly become a bigger decision than it used to be. A wave of state and local rules restricting single-use plastic has been working its way through the country, and it isn't slowing down. At the same time, more of your shoppers are reading labels for recyclability before they read them for butterfat, whether or not your packaging actually needs to change. Members who cut wedges for wholesale accounts have also told us that some buyers are starting to ask about packaging materials as part of the order conversation, not as an afterthought.
What's actually driving this
The uncomfortable finding under most of the current research is that a large share of what gets labeled "recyclable" on food packaging isn't reliably recycled in practice — contamination, mixed materials, and inconsistent local programs all get in the way. That matters for you specifically because vacuum-sealed cheese, wax-coated rinds, and mixed paper-and-plastic wrap are exactly the kind of packaging that tends to fall through the cracks of a standard recycling stream. Saying "recyclable" on a label you can't back up is a bigger risk than saying nothing.
The direction manufacturers and packagers are actually moving is toward mono-material packaging — one type of plastic or fiber instead of a laminate of several — because it's genuinely easier to recycle, and toward compostable options where the product and the shelf life can tolerate it. Neither is a drop-in replacement for what most small creameries use today, which is exactly why this is a conversation worth having as a group rather than working it out alone.
What the webinar covers
The November 2 session walks through:
- What "recyclable" and "compostable" claims actually require to be defensible on a label, separate from what sounds good
- Where mono-material wrap options exist at small-batch order volumes, and where they don't yet
- How a few members have restructured their cut-and-wrap process to reduce material without changing shelf life
It's free, virtual, and runs about an hour with time for questions at the end. If you handle labeling or packaging decisions at your creamery — or you're the person who ends up fielding the buyer's question about it — this is built for you. Registration is open on the events calendar now.
This is landing right as retailers are rolling out their holiday-season lineups, which means packaging decisions you make in the next few weeks will be the ones sitting on shelves through the busiest selling stretch of the year. A relabel or a wrap change made in January doesn't help you during the season when your case gets the most foot traffic and the most scrutiny. If you've been putting off a packaging review because it felt like a slow-season project, this is the argument for doing it now instead.
It's also worth saying plainly: nobody expects a small creamery to redesign its entire packaging line off one webinar. The goal for November 2 is narrower than that. We want members to leave with a clear sense of which of their current claims are solid, which need a second look, and which changes are realistic at their production volume without a capital investment they can't justify this year. A distributor or retail buyer who asks a pointed question about your wrap in December is a much better conversation to have if you've already thought it through in November.
If you can't make the live session, it will be recorded and posted to the member resource library within a few days, along with a short reference sheet on labeling claims that members have asked us to put together after past packaging sessions. Either way, don't let this slide past the holiday order deadline your distributor already gave you.
The International Cheese Federation (ICF) and More Cheese are entirely fictional. This post is demonstration content created for MemberJunction. All people, organizations, events, courses, certifications, figures, and quotations in it are invented, and nothing here represents a real association, a real business, a real person, or real professional advice.