Kickstart: Add spice packaging to the list of possible shortages

Each morning, mixed in with all the other newsletters and emails I get, I also glance through one that covers news and trends for grocery stores across the U.S. Lately, that roundup has included warnings that shoppers are starting to bulk up their home supplies, what Walmart CEO Doug McMillon called "stock-up behavior."

That demand to fill shelves at home is being exacerbated by the coming holidays, with consumers anxious to stock up on spices. The problem for spice companies, according to this story from The Washington Post, is a familiar one first seen in the spring: a packaging shortage.

Chip Overstreet, CEO of Spiceology in Spokane, Wash., said spices have been relatively easy to source, but glass and plastic containers are in short supply.

"Jugs, shakers, bags, plastic tubs — the lead times are stretching from two to three months and now into the new year. We're having to bring in plastics where molds don't fit the specs," agreed McKinley Thomason, owner of Doug Jeffords spice company in Mount Pleasant, Tenn.

The story didn't have comments from any packaging companies, but PN has written often about how those suppliers are operating near full capacity to supply containers for food, cleaning supplies and medical equipment. It sounds like the demand for their work isn't going to slow down anytime soon.

The spotlight is continuing to shine on recycling, and interest in issues related to requirements for recycling is coming from a wider range of people.

As Steve Toloken recently reported, some industry groups are urging the Environmental Protection Agency to do more to support recycling and requirements to use a percentage of recycled content in products such as bottles. Those rules would help provide a needed market for post-consumer recycled plastics.

"As an industry, [one policy area] we've moved closer to accepting and actually promoting is recycled-content requirements," Matt Seaholm, vice president of government affairs for the Plastics Industry Association, said at the Global Plastics Summit. "On a number of fronts, there's an accepting number of companies and industries that can say, alright, PCR [post-consumer recycled] requirements are a good place for us to focus, because if there's an end market, then the investment will follow."

At the same event, the two U.S. senators who are pushing for approval of Save Our Seas 2.0 echoed the need for more recycling support.

Tupperware Brands is teaming up with the National Park Service (and the charity groups for both Tupperware and the NPS) in a $1 million project to support "waste diversion and reduction efforts" at national parks.

Part of that work will promote reusable products, such as Tupperware's Eco Bottles, with 50 percent of the retail price on the bottles going to the National Park Foundation.

"We know waste is a compounding issue at parks across the country and continues to increase as more visitors travel locally and explore the inspiration that these iconic places have to offer," Tupperware CEO Miguel Fernandez said in a news release.