Sustainable Packaging: Virtual or Real?

In the past 10 years, sustainability or green packaging has become a hot topic in the packaging industry. The sustainability has penetrated into all aspects of packaging, driven by retailer requirements, public awareness, economic pressure (especially petroleum products) and government policies. Appropriate packaging is undoubtedly necessary and beneficial, but over-packaging for protection, convenience, communication, and decoration, etc., overpacks the packaging to the other extreme. Waste is now an essential element of the life cycle of packaging and products. However, some industry insiders believe that sustainable packaging is only an adjective, term, and it is no longer relevant to the quality of the packaging itself, and has gradually evolved into Excessive packaging has triggered a series of controversies.

Sustainable Packaging: Virtual or Real?

With regard to sustainable packaging, Denis Salazar, president and co-founder of Salazar Packaging, spoke on his blog, “One of the issues facing the plastics packaging industry is consumer perception. ”

“There are some people in the society today who are anti-plastics groups. They do not accept any form of plastic packaging products and are very suspicious of sustainable packaging products. This is a prejudice that has accumulated over time.” Salazar said.

At the same time, Joan Hines, a freelance expert and industry advisor for the packaging industry, stated that “When it comes to sustainable green plastic packaging, some consumers do not understand the news. Companies have not educated consumers on what green packaging is. The material is made, we need it, you can use it to do something, and so on." As an industry company, if you want to get more consumers, change their prejudice, make the sustainable packaging industry more With a broad space for development, it should be more focused on consumer awareness, packaging practicality, the maximum sustainability of the entire supply chain, and post-use recyclability.

Recently, a report recently published by financial services company PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) pointed out that "sustainable packaging: virtual or reality?" Now many manufacturers have not focused on the "real" problem of packaging, affecting sustainable packaging Industry development. Retailers, manufacturers, and consumer groups, including Federal Packaging, Procter & Gamble, Nestle, and Rexam, all stated that the term sustainable packaging should be eliminated, and that future trends should be “over-packaged” to the entire supply chain of the packaging industry. Persistence and recyclability develop after use.

The conclusion of the PWC report research: Today, "sustainable packaging" as a term is no longer the basis for the determination of good or bad packaging. The report pointed out that the future development of the sustainable packaging industry should focus on practicality and post-use sustainability rather than packaging itself. In response, PWC company leader Rich Hall said, "The sustainable packaging industry is moving toward all-round development in terms of efficient products, efficient packaging, efficient transportation efficiency and efficient solutions."

“With the development of intelligent packaging, non-petrochemical-derived plant-based plastics, and drives, the entire packaging supply chain will be more efficient and will evolve into an effective packaging solution. This is a considerable step forward for many small businesses. And corporate giants have invested heavily in their packaging supply chain and can be reclaimed after use, so as to be more "sustainable" and phrase sustainable packaging will no longer exist.

Ten Tips for Sustainable Packaging Design

After nearly 10 years of exploration and practice, we realized that, first of all, there is no truly sustainable packaging in the world. On the contrary, sustainability is just a process. Its goal is to make packaging sustainability over time. And continuous improvement, thereby reducing the overall environmental impact of the product.
Second, from the perspective of sustainability, packaging materials include glass, plastic, paper, and aluminum, and it is difficult to distinguish between good and bad.

Depending on the purpose of the product and the purpose of the package, each material has its own advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, we must always learn to choose between the pursuit of sustainability.

Again, we must consider the sustainability of packaging from the perspective of the entire product supply chain. Packaging accounts for less than 10% of the carbon footprint of a product, and the carbon footprint produced by the product during its manufacture and use is the largest. Although the carbon footprint of packaging may be small, its importance cannot be ignored. If packaging loses its most basic function of protecting products in the supply chain, attracting customers to purchase, and promoting consumption, then when this product is thrown away, the energy it consumes in the production process is wasted.

In the past 10 years, sustainability or green packaging has become a hot topic in the packaging industry. Under the influence of retailer's requirements, public awareness, economic pressure (especially petroleum products) and government policies, sustainability has penetrated into all aspects of packaging - from the source of raw materials to the final treatment of the products - and finally It evolved into a very complicated problem.