The Top 9 Sustainable Packaging Trends in 2019
Author: Sophie Kieselbach and Flora D'SouzaSenior Consultants
Source from: https://www.thinkstep.com/blog/top-9-sustainable-packaging-trends-2019
5. Reduce and Remove Packaging
Reducing and ultimately removing packaging from products, such as from bulk food items, is a lucrative way of minimizing the materials in circulation and ultimately the environmental impact of packaging. However, as was so beautifully demonstrated with the now-famous example of the shrink-wrapped cucumber, we should not exclude the purpose of packaging when we assess its environmental impact. If the packaging fails to fulfill its primary purpose of safeguarding the product’s quality, the product may go to waste, and the environmental impact of a wasted product is, in general, far higher than that of the avoided packaging material.
Our suggestion: Keep working to reduce packaging material within the limits allowed by its purpose. And if, as with some initiatives, you start a new product line with reduced packaging and therefore reduced product shelf-life, loudly communicate it to customers and continue to help them understand the reasoning behind the changes to make sure that the net benefits outweigh the drawbacks. Life cycle thinking, as always, helps.
6. Shift to Mono-Materials
Laminates and composite packaging from multiple materials constitute one of the biggest hurdles to achieving recyclability (not recycling itself, for which the biggest problem is collection and infrastructure). So manufacturers have made considerable effort to shift to mono-material packaging (laminates included). The risk here is that mono-material solutions can end up decidedly heavier and bulkier than their composite alternatives and may need other additives. The reason is simple, companies use aluminum layers in laminates because of their insulative properties that—when replaced by plastics or paper—require thicker layers and, ultimately, also more mass.
Our suggestion: Analyze alternatives carefully and quantitatively to ensure that for the same packaging quality, the mono-material alternative does not in fact increase overall environmental impacts or shift burdens from one environmental impact to another.
Sunlea Label Printing: The purpose of multiple layers flexible packaging is the barrier properties from oxygen, moisture, odors, and light and help in extending the shelf life of the products. How a Mono-Materials to achieve this function would be a challenge to this industry.
7. Increase Recycled Content
The UK has recently introduced regulations that requires increased recycled content for packaging. It is commendable that the industry is not only focusing on producing recyclable materials, but also ensuring that manufacturers can use the recycled materials for the same application that those materials were derived from. Only then will the manufacturer actualize the true meaning of circularity. But achieving a set target of, say, at least 30% recycled content by 2030, is not as ‘simple’ as exchanging one supplier with another. First and foremost, recycled content in packaging affects the quality of the packaging and might require an increase in the overall weight or an extra layer of protection. Secondly, the recycling of plastics is currently limited to about 5 cycles before the recyclates lose the material properties the industry relies on them for. Obviously, this imposes a supply limitation, which is compounded by the lack of local recycling infrastructure. And we should not forget that recycling carries its own environmental burdens, because of the energy and materials required for the process. Overall, the environmental impact may or may not improve with the 30% targets, but companies wanting to achieve this target may have to reckon with supply risks.
Our recommendation: Gradually and collaboratively support the growth of local recycling infrastructure and continue to include chemical recycling as an option. For the latter, political lobbying may be needed to redefine governmental regulations on what counts as recycling.
8. New Out-of-the-Box Ideas
What we haven’t touched on until now are new, out-of-the-box packaging ideas. There are a lot of innovative ideas out there, such as changing the form of packaging, completely enhancing stackability, emptiability, etc. We do know that for you to meet with success in outside-the-box thinking, you need not only brain power, but courage and investment. Innovation is hard, but all the more rewarding.
Our suggestion: Take the opportunity to reinvent packaging and don’t be afraid to make alliances with suppliers as well as the competition. Innovation is imperative to a sustainable future.
9. Customer is Key
While the customer is part of the change process in many of the above-mentioned initiatives, we want to emphasize this as a separate trend. Brands communicating and educating their customers on how to responsibly use and dispose of packaging are a key to the success in any and all areas. This positive development is luckily on the rise. The only danger is if we move toward over-simplified (and eventually incorrect) qualitative descriptions designed to enable all customers to decipher the message, but actually mislead the public.
Our suggestion: Ensure that the environmentally solid ideals are communicated appropriately for different levels of customer curiosity. Today we have the technology to add a tiny QR code to a label and link more details that would be too much for most customers, but satisfy the curiosity of others. Focus not only on engaging unresponsive or environmentally disinterested customers, but also on shaping the opinions of those who may have dragged onto the misled bandwagon (e.g., standard-bearers of “no packaging is the best packaging”).
Courageous, out-of-the-box thinking, understanding your whole supply chain and proper R&D are critical to the development of sustainable packaging. But the question will arise as to how you create a more sustainable solution if at the same time the recycling quotas force you to do the opposite. How can you, as a manufacturer, go against regulatory pressure and potentially risk push-back from customers, to carry out the more sustainable option?
When politicians create laws that are poorly thought through, it slows our inevitable evolution toward more sustainable packaging. In addition to regulated recycling rates, we need compulsory Life Cycle Assessment. Without such regulatory instruments, we run the risk of making the wrong decisions that will only shift the burden, delaying the time when industry will again have to deal with the problem comprehensively. Furthermore, politicians and governments need to look beyond their borders to ensure that waste trade is managed in a globally responsible manner. This should include supporting the expansion of waste management infrastructure in countries that import our waste while simultaneously clamping down on the black market of waste causing illicit landfills and spillage into the oceans.
And don’t forget, focus your communication strategy on the net benefits across the diverse environmental impacts, and with respect to the function of the packaging. We need customers to be on board with the chosen strategy.