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Environmentally Friendly Packaging - Four Eco-friendly Solutions For Today's Packaging Challenges
Everyone wants to find ways to make their product more "green," and one of the first steps in doing so is designing environmentally friendly packaging. Housing your product in a green container sends an important message to your customers and reduces your carbon footprint.
Also, since the introduction of the Wal-Mart Scorecard, green packages can even help you get your product on the shelf. The scorecard requires suppliers to enter sustainability information about their products and has become an important tool for Wal-Mart when making buying decisions.
When it comes to packaging, there are many different ways to have a positive environmental impact. Packages can be recyclable, recycled or biodegradable. They can also be designed to use less material and take up less space. Understanding the options can help you decide on the appropriate solution for your product.
- Recyclable - When using recyclable containers, each layer of the package must be in its pure form. Some materials commonly used in recyclable packaging include aluminum/steel, glass and plastic.
- Recycled - A misconception exists that recycled packages must be made from 100 percent recycled materials. In fact, these containers can be made from either partially or completely recycled materials.
- Biodegradable - New technologies mean more flexibility in using biodegradable materials for packaging. Two popular biodegradable materials are Polylactic Acid (PLA) plastic, derived from cornstarch, and NatureStone, composed of limestone or calcium carbonate.
- Source Reduction - Using a source reduction strategy means creating a package that uses less material and takes up less space. Source reduction can significantly reduce the environmental impact, and is an important criterion in the Wal-Mart Scorecard, which measures the product-to-packaging ratio.
All four of these solutions can help you create more environmentally friendly packaging. However, one package cannot be all of these things. You need to choose a focused strategy. Think about what message you want to send to your customers, and ask yourself what your marketing goal is.
Once you have decided which strategy is right for you, find a partner who can help you make all of the decisions needed to ensure that the packaging meets all of your needs, from budget restrictions and regulatory compliance to branding design and technical capabilities. Your package should not only be environmentally friendly; it should also be functional and aesthetically pleasing too.
