The whole idea of sustainable packaging is humanity being more considerate of the environment and ensuring that conscious efforts are taken to save our planet from biodegradation. Thinking of how best to do this? Designing sustainable packaging solutions is one great way to go. Here are 4 perfect ways to design sustainable packaging solutions for your business.
Choice of material
You must pay attention to the material you want to use for your sustainable packaging solutions. Through polymerization, packaging materials are made from fossil fuel to produce plastic material, and virgin plastic is produced from petrochemicals. Petrochemicals are not healthy for our environment and are best avoided. The best alternatives would have been bioplastics, but bioplastics, contrary to popular beliefs, are not so much of a better alternative either. Yes, they are a greener choice than petrochemical plastics, but because they still create confusion when it comes to end-of-life, there is a question mark to their usage.
Source of material
An excellent way to get on board with designing sustainable packaging solutions is to source your packaging materials locally. This saves money that could have been expended on storage and shipping of these materials to your locality. For instance, in 2009, Dell decided to locally source bamboo packing materials as a local alternative that could easily be sourced in China, where the product was being manufactured, saving the company lots of money!
Design with purpose
Try as much as you can to design for reusability. Several giant companies are creating packaging materials that are reusable, recyclable, or can be upcycled. Shoe designers are opting for reusable bags to replace shoe boxes, which is a brilliant move! This move alone has reduced cardboard use drastically and jettisoned the need for tissue papers while also positively affecting the energy needed to produce the packaging materials and transport weight.
Efficient Transportation
In your sustainable packaging journey, there is a need to carefully consider efficient transportation. Why? Because the weightier a packaged item is, the more energy is needed for movement and the more the emissions from the freight transport. For the sake of safety upon delivery, most transport systems adopt secondary packaging and transport packaging, thereby increasing the initial weight and size of the already packaged item. It is good to keep these little details in mind when organizing for an item to be delivered or when selecting the right freight company to do your deliveries. The consciousness of space occupancy and extra weight will keep a transport company adopting functional alternatives that are eco-friendly.
