Sustainable Packaging for Businesses: Behind the design, priorities & guidelines
Packaging is ubiquitous and eventually the packaging, as we know it, is to take a completely new direction. There is a general pressure on packaging for it to become “sustainable” and in the recent years this pressure has become a phenomenon.
On one hand there are calls from the media regarding the matter while the perceptions of the consumers have been continuously changed. This pressure has brought to legislative decisions that on the other hand make the companies’ internal procedures more complicated. As a result, companies end up having to deal with conflicting demands from consumers, regulators and other stakeholders.
Sustainable packaging is simply packaging that is more sustainable or better for the environment. All of a sudden, a business is found confused in front of sustainability terms like recyclable, compostable, renewable, reusable, etc. The entire supply chain, from the initial sourcing of raw materials through to consumer product disposal is dependent on packaging. The packaging though should be integrated into a company’s wider sustainability strategy. But where do you start from when found in front of all the regulations and the sustainability demands?!
It is important to note that there is not such a thing as a good or a bad packaging material. All the materials have properties that manifest advantages and disadvantages depending on the context in which they are used. In any case it is important to assess the impact of packaging in your business, understand what should be measured and how it can be measured. Conducting a life cycle analysis provides one of the most holistic approaches to understanding the environmental impact of the packaging. It is recommended that when embarking on a sustainability strategy, to always take the time to map out the priorities and develop a framework to guide the decision making.
One thing is for sure, there is no standard approach. Along with your team you can find a solution together. Start by determining what environmental concerns you would like to address like the ocean pollution, climate change, global deforestation, minimizing waste or preserving lands. Try to get into details in order to understand how to make an impactful decision on minimizing the repercussion towards environmental matter and make it happen through your actions.
It is after that one step that you will need to realize how to connect the concerns to your business type. For watches and jewelry making business for instance it is important to rely on steady, safe and ecologically extracted minerals or gems. In order to provide you with a very concrete example, BCL produces watch bands made of 100% recycled ocean material while looking out for new recycled solutions in order to make an impact in saving the oceans.
As a third exercise it is very important to list the root cause of the environmental issues that you are most focused on and then draft and refine the priorities beginning with environmental packaging solutions.
How to design an environmentally sustainable packaging:
If it is necessary to use non-renewable based packaging such as plastic, use as much recycled material and as much post-consumer brand waste as possible
If you choose to use renewable material based packaging made with recycled materials such as traditional corrugated or paper, try to use as much recycled material as possible, in particular post-consumer waste.
When impossible to source recycled materials, look for raw, virgin materials that are grown responsibly, that are not contributing to deforestation, habitat destruction or excessive pollution.
If you decide to use renewable material based packaging that cannot currently be made with recycled material, make sure that the raw inputs are produced as sustainably as possibly.
After having chosen the right packaging solutions for your businesses it is important to find the best way for it to be disposed: Recycle, Compost or Landfill.
Make sure to share with your customer all the details on how to recycle your packaging solution.
In general use as little packaging as possible.
At BCL we have adopted a series of packaging solutions while working on our way towards the full sustainable cycle:
We have replaced regular corrugated paper & paper shipping with recyclable paper mark because producing recyclable paper takes 30,000 less liters of water and 27% less energy when compared to producing virgin fiber paper.
The plastic straps have been replaced with polypropylene straps as they can now be 100% recycled while emitting less CO2 and reducing the environmental footprint.
Another measure that has been adopted is replacing the cases in polyfoam with pulp paper and recycled corrugated paper consuming less energy and water in the production process.
The plastic tape at BCL has been replaced with reinforced kraft tape which doesn’t need any water in the production process and is acid free.
We have chosen biodegradable and compostable bags instead of transparent plastic bags in order to improve the soil and not leave any harmful to the environment residues behind.
Check out on our solutions and program