What is Eco-Friendly Packaging?

Every day millions of products are purchased which makes packaging of products quite a huge market. Packaging is known as one of the biggest polluters of landfills and the environment. Businesses need to make sure that their packaging does not negatively impact the environment and therefore you think of packaging ideas that can decompose in nature. Today’s customers are also very choosy when it comes to the packaging of the product because they now want packaging that is sustainable so they do not harm the environment. Eco-Friendly packaging is a growing packaging trend. It is also the moral responsibility of the business to educate customers by focusing more on eco-friendly packaging.

You can create eco-friendly custom packaging by paying attention to where the packaging comes from and what happens to it after the customer decomposes it. Understandability of the product life cycle helps you to choose ways that will reduce your carbon footprint. You should also consider your transportation and warehouse storage to further reduce your harmful impacts on the environment.

Once you know the packaging and how it works, it will help you to use and think of mode sustainable material choices.

7 Tips to Make Eco-Friendly Packaging

Below are a few ideas that you can use to make your packaging safe and eco-friendly.

Use only sustainable materials

Most product packaging is made in any one of the following three ways.

• Virginia materials
• partially recycled materials
• 100% recycled materials

Using virgin materials means that you’re using new resources for your packaging every day which is although not avoidable but we should always try to choose a material that comes from natural resources. Paper or Materials made from plant-based Starch will help you to reduce your impact on the environment and they will decompose naturally without leaving any toxins in the surrounding. Some of the options that you can choose from are hemp, recycled cotton, palm leaves, tapioca, and many others.  Carefully choosing sustainable raw materials for your product packaging will help you minimize the negative impact on the environment. You can also choose biopolymers such as carbohydrates and proteins to have eco-friendly packaging for food that will be biodegradable and compostable.

Use custom-sized boxes to reduce packaging

Oversized boxes cost you a lot of money and packaging space. Such boxes increase your transportation cost which further increases your carbon footprint. What you should be using to make sure your packaging is more sustainable?

Use Packaging that is according to your product size. Measure the dimensions of your product carefully to ensure the packaging boxes are according to your product. The exact size of the product and box will help you reduce extra material wastage cost and also your packaging will become more environmentally sustainable. These boxes will take up less space during transportation which will decrease the carbon footprint.

Avoid mixing packaging materials and unnecessary packaging extras

Mixing different types of packaging materials is very difficult to recycle and ends up polluting landfills. Choose packaging that is not made up of redundant or non-recyclable materials. Always try to choose a material that is sourced from sustainable resources and is not mixed with any material that is difficult to recycle.

Every time you put something in your packaging box it consumes some materials. Brands use different things to increase their popularity or add a unique unboxing experience for their customers. However, you can avoid some things to reduce your packaging waste without taking away the positive experience from the customers. For example, you are putting your packaging box inside a shipping box for transportation. You don’t need to do this until and unless you are sending something fragile or highly sensitive. Choose a material that is sturdy enough to protect your product so you don’t have to use the shipping box which will eliminate the box and will save you cost as well as your impact on the environment will be reduced. Let’s go over some more ideas that you can avoid to reduce your packaging waste.

• Use digital slips instead of paper ones
• Exclude the plastic wrap from your packaging
• Use recyclable Paper inserts
• Use custom size to eliminate void and oversized boxes
• Print inside the box rather than adding any extra inserts
• Use Hexi-flex instead of packaging peanuts.

Consider multi-use packaging

Investing in reusable packaging helps to converse non-renewable resources. For example, if you sell lotions you can introduce reusable stainless steel lotion bottles that will drastically reduce environmental impacts and your packaging cost. A few companies that sell shampoo have installed a Refill station so customers can bring their old shampoo bottles and refill from there by paying the amount which will decrease the cost of shampoo for customers and will encourage them to reuse their bottles. This is just one example there are many numerous creative ways that you can use to make sure you are using eco-friendly packaging cosmetics for your business.

Another amazing way to make your package sustainable is to use only recyclable materials so you can reuse them again and again. Eco-friendly packaging for small businesses benefits specifically as they are always on a tight budget. Reusing your material, again and again, will reduce your packaging cost which will help you to focus more on your product rather than worrying about your budget.

Showoff your Sustainability

As we already discussed that today’s customer is very choosy when it comes to the packaging of products. You can use your responsible and sustainable business as an excellent marketing tool for your business. Customers prefer to buy from responsible and purpose-driven brands rather than buying from brands that only focus on their product and money-making. You can shout out about your efforts by printing your eco-friendly logo on your packaging to create a win-win situation for your business. You can also show off your eco-friendly and sustainability efforts on your website social media handles email marketing to spread the word about you in the consumer market. Doing all these things will also inspire your competitors and another business to make similar efforts in making the future more sustainable.

Choose suppliers that care about your surroundings

When choosing a supplier for your packaging always give preference to local sustainable manufacturers because they make packaging through processes that conserve energy and natural resources. These manufacturers always make efforts to curb emissions from vehicles and implement different recycling programs to reduce the manufacturing waste of packaging. Plastic-free packaging and reusable packaging benefit both our environment and your business.

Encourage customers to buy multiple products at one time

When you are dealing with an e-commerce business you can consolidate the order of customers in one box whether then packing it for shipping separately. This will reduce the packaging and material transportation cost.   Customers will also save the shipping cost by placing one order, therefore, encouraging the customers to order multiple products at one time.

Winding up

Choose sustainable practices while designing your packaging to strike a balance between consumer and environment. Brands that use reusable packaging not only reduce their carbon footprint but also  Enjoy the luxury of low cost and high customers trust