Sustainable Packaging -Bringing A Change in the Packaging Industries

0
3123

With an increased awareness of green consciousness among eco-conscious customers, product manufacturers are now at the forefront of sustainability. Being aware of the negative ecological impacts of packaging, consumers are now becoming less and less tolerant of its usage in their daily lifestyle. This emerging awareness about green packaging has greatly persuaded the packaging industry to embrace this green trend to drive innovation in reducing the carbon footprint.

Since now both the manufacturing and retail industries are embracing this trend, it is very important to know what basically is sustainable packaging.

Sustainable Packaging basically involves using eco-friendly packaging materials that come from natural sources and has the ability to recycle readily when disposed of. The primary goal linked with eco-friendly or sustainable packaging is to make a reduction in the release of the carbon footprint as well as minimizing the harmful packaging impact on the environment. Apart from this, their ability to follow the 3R principle has made them gain popularity in various industries. No matter what product requires eco-friendly packaging, it should follow the three main packaging essentials. This includes:

  • Ability to reduce

Reduce means to cut down the maximum of waste as possible to help the environment retain its greenness. Generating less waste means less effort will be required to clean the waste. The amount of waste generated can be used by minimizing the use of disposable products like cups, paper plates, paper napkins, and paper towels, and plastic bottles, etc. By reducing its usage, you can minimize the new sources.

  • Ability to reuse

Reuse means to figure out ways to reuse your used products to cause a reduction in your trash footprints. Instead of throwing away your used products like toys, glass jars, clothes, or used bath towels, etc. donating them to a local charity can help in reducing waste. The more you find ways to reuse your used items, the less waste you generate.

  • Ability to recycle

Recycling is the last and most important among the 3Rs of sustainability. Recycling the disposed of materials into new products helps in the reduction of wastes and prevents them from entering into natural resources. Make sure whatever product you buy should either be recycled or made using recycled material.

Following these 3Rs of sustainability will enhance your green habitat and shows your contribution towards saving the green environment from harmful packaging impacts. However, the various environmental benefits acquired by eco-friendly packaging have made various industries implement this green approach in their packaging to meet their sales target.

What Possible Benefits Can Be Expected By Using Sustainable Packaging?

Following the famous trend of sustainable packaging provides great benefits to the business in terms of enhancing the brand reputation to an increased number of sales and achieving customer satisfaction. All of these factors contribute to driving your business towards success. Other than this, it also builds a clientele base and saves packaging costs. But other than getting business perks, going green with the packaging solutions come along with various environmental benefits. These include:

  1. Reduced carbon footprint

Carbon footprint is the emission of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane by burning fossil fuels. These gases get trapped in the atmosphere and cause global warming that is extremely dangerous to the environment. However, embracing green-based packaging will cause a reduction in the carbon footprints and ultimately carbon emission.

  1. Free of allergens and toxins

The best advantage of eco-friendly packaging is that they do not contain any harmful toxins, chemicals, or allergens thus providing safety to customer’s health. The conventional packaging solutions contain dangerous toxins and chemicals that contain serious health issues and make customers allergic to packaging.

  1. Biodegradable

The ability of eco-friendly packaging to decompose is the best benefit gained as decomposing will cause no harm to the environment and reduce the carbon footprint.

  1. Easy disposability

One of the main problems with conventional packaging is that they are hard to dispose of. This disability of packaging to get easily dispose of turn waste into compost that greatly affects air and water which are the main environmental components. Make sure whatever packaging material you choose should be easily recycled and disposable that saves the environment from hazardous packaging impacts.

  1. Reduced plastic

Conventional packaging methods involve the use of plastics that is extremely threatening to the environment i.e. causing global warming. This patent form of pollution caused by plastic packaging is extremely harmful to the earth’s ecosystem. However, its reduction can be achieved by acquiring eco-friendly packaging that will eventually reduce the number of plastics you use.

Strategies Of Implementing Sustainable Packaging

Now being familiar with what sustainable packaging is and what benefits does it provide, there is a need to figure out effective strategies for implementing eco-friendly packaging solutions in your business. While implementing the strategies, make sure you focus on the different aspects of your business including your target customer, product, and brand.

Follow the following strategies to maintain the sustainable standards of your brands.

  1. Material alternatives

Implementing material strategies can give off various benefits. For instance, avoid using different packaging materials like paper and plastic that can cause a drastic effect on your business. Make sure that your packaging is comprised of a single packaging material that makes it easy to recycle. You can also go for using renewable materials like bioplastics that possess the excellent properties of being compostable and biodegradable.

  1. Follow recycling and disposal practices

Raise awareness about the recycling and disposal of packaging among customers for keeping the sustainability measures. Recycling and reusing the packaging will reduce pollution by producing less amount of waste. Before this practice, it is very important to educate them about the material used that makes it easy for customers to recycle. This strategy will reduce the burden of waste disposal on customers and expand your customer base.

  1. Sizing strategy

It is very important to choose the accurate size for your product packaging to reduce your material and shipping costs. While choosing the accurate size for the packaging, you can go for one size fits all approach, which means you can choose one standard size that fits your various products. Or you can go for choosing the various range of sizes for different products for optimization.

  1. Consider choosing the right packaging suppliers

Make sure whichever manufacturing company you choose for getting your packaging follows the sustainability measures of packaging. Make sure your manufacturing suppliers make use of eco-friendly and sustainable packaging materials that minimize the harmful ecological impacts. Sticking to sustainable practices for packaging will reflect your high brand standards and makes your brand a priority choice of your customers.