• Using as little packaging as possible, downsizing boxes, and assisting your consumers with visual graphics to recycle more easily can all help reduce your footprint. The cornerstone for increasing the sustainability of your packaging is optimizing its designs. 
• Your material selection should emphasize the use of a single material over a combination of materials and reduce the usage of new materials for packaging when secondary material use is possible. 
• Manufacturers are crucial; attempt to ship your samples by sea freight before production, source locally instead, pick manufacturers who care about sustainability, and reduce the number of unnecessary packing materials required throughout your supply chain.

Did you know that over ten million tons of plastic enter the ocean annually, even though only 15% of plastic packaging is recycled? 

There is no doubt that everything is in our control. Let's take this occasion to share your top ten tips for improving package sustainability.

Consider the packaging life cycle of your goods. It begins with the ideal packaging designs and shapes your designers have in mind. Packaging designers are the first to have the most significant influence on sustainability because they combine several viewpoints on marketing, customer experience, product safety, legal requirements, and sustainability. The decisions made by your packaging designer will determine how sustainable your packaging will be. So let's begin from this point! 

#1 Design as little packaging as needed.

The fewer components you add to your primary packaging the better it is for the environment. It can already assist in using fewer resources and less space during transportation with less packaging. For example, Apple removed a thin plastic layer from their packaging when they unveiled the iPhone 13. Removing the plastic covering an iPhone package spared six hundred tons of plastic.

#2 Find opportunities to shrink your boxes.

Smaller boxes result in cheaper transportation costs, but they also leave behind less of a carbon imprint in terms of resources and energy required. Look at the SKUs for your current packaging and evaluate the space. Make an effort to limit the package's air content. Your team could reduce the materials' size by a few centimeters, which would be advantageous for the environment in the long run.

#3 Help your customers to dispose of the packaging in the right way.

Do you know the little identifiers that point us toward the appropriate trash bin for each type of material we consume? Whatever products you sell, you can also make the same thing happen! Include disposing-related indicators on your packaging, or even include a summary. Make it simple for your customers to understand how to dispose of your packing in order to get recycled. As an idea, you could incorporate a QR code into your packaging that communicates your brand and recycling instructions. 

It's time to select the most sustainable materials, going back to the package life cycle previously described. 

#4: Prefer single-material components.

Refrain from combining different materials in one packaging, as this makes it more difficult for your clients to identify how to dispose of the packaging correctly as well as decreasing recyclability of the material. In contrast to minor interactions of materials, such as plastic tape on a cardboard box, this predominantly affects the combination of significant components.  

#5: Reduce virgin materials 

Your decision as to whether a box is constructed entirely of virgin or recycled paper has an immediate effect on the environment. Most of the time, both solutions have comparable features and are frequently priced similarly. If your application allows using recycled material, consider switching to or increasing the amount of secondary content. 

#6: Give innovative materials a try.

Looking at the development of alternative packaging materials such as bioplastics that assist in lessening our dependence on natural resources like fossil fuels, alternative materials can offer comparable functionalities and qualities to conventional materials. Innovative materials can also provide additional benefits like biodegradability or compostability. Nevertheless, alternative materials such as biodegrade packaging are only beneficial when implementing them for the right packaging application. Packmatic’s packaging experts are open to evaluate your packaging needs and help you make the right selection. 

Returning to the packaging life cycle of your goods, the package manufacturing and the transportation is typically the final steps before the product reaches your client. Let's find out how to raise these things' sustainability levels.

#7: Manufacturing across the ocean?  

Plan additional time for  transport, shipping samples and approval periods between you and your manufacturer. Extra time will allow you to choose sea freight instead of air freight. Air freight emits 47 times more emissions than sea freight. 

#8: Local manufacturers sourcing local materials for packaging

 When selecting your packaging supplier there might not be the need to go overseas. By choosing local suppliers you can save up to 47 times the transport emissions and it will benefit you throughout your ordering process as less transport issues can arise. It is easier to build up a strong customer supplier relationship with local suppliers and they generally can react quicker to shortages. 

#9: Choose manufacturers who care about sustainability 

How closely do you and your supplier partners share the same objectives regarding sustainability? If you choose material suppliers concerned with sustainability objectives, your impact on sustainability will be even more significant. It benefits you both when suppliers conserve more water, emit less carbon dioxide, or take other actions to lessen their environmental effects. The norm ISO 14001 - environmental management system standard sets requirements for environmental management systems for good practices within organizations which can be taken as orientation when selecting your future supplier. 

#10: Avoid additional packaging throughout your supply chain

To improve safety during transit, do you wrap pallets in plastic foil? There are other, more environmentally friendly ways to protect your goods. Reducing the quantity of packaging used within each supply chain level, from manufacturer to the client, can prevent the need for further packing. This can lessen trash generation and the adverse environmental effects of your packing. In most cases simple design changes along the supply chain in the packaging decrease overall material usage and might generate a benefit in pallet space usage. 

In conclusion, there are several methods your business may employ to increase the sustainability of its packaging. These tactics can assist in lowering the environmental impact of packaging and improve transportation's sustainability, from using less packaging and sharing disposal best practices to partnering with local manufacturers and avoiding overpackaging across the supply chain. By putting these tactics into practice, your business may do more to protect the environment, promote recycling, and offer clients packaging options that are more environmentally friendly.

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Let us now help you find the strategies that suit your company the most. Book an appointment with one of our specialists today.

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