This blog is based on a packaging masterclass run by our CEO Barbara Nebel with the New Zealand Sustainable Business Network in March 2022.
A plastic tub. A cardboard box. A paper envelope. What’s involved in making them ‘more sustainable’?
More than you might expect! Assessing your packaging options involves balancing many competing priorities. Our seven questions will help you find that balance.
Question 1: What’s the main purpose of my packaging?
Are you trying to protect your product? That’s a valid reason. Eggs are fragile. A cushioned egg carton will help them go the distance.
Or is it more about marketing? For many consumer products, packaging is part of the brand. (We’re not naming anyone here, but you know who you are!) Yes, your packaging looks beautiful / funky / practical. But do you really need it? Or quite that much of it?
Or maybe you’re trying to extend your product’s life? The plastic shrink wrap on cucumbers is the go-to example here. While research shows it can extend the product’s shelf-life, there may be better ways to get the same result.
Question 2: What are my main sustainability priorities?
Start with your main stakeholders – the people with an interest in your business. They’re likely to include your investors, suppliers, customers, and team. Then identify their interests and why packaging matters to them. For example, your suppliers may see packaging as a way to protect their products; retailers may have committed to reducing non-recyclable packaging.
Now consider your business’ priorities. Do you want to reduce plastic pollution in our oceans? Avert the climate crisis? Reduce waste and make your business more resilient with circular economy? Make progress on relevant Sustainable Development Goals?
With your stakeholders’ and business’ priorities confirmed, it’s time to tackle your packaging. Warning! As you make changes, make sure you’re not shifting the burden to other impacts. Reducing the carbon involved in producing your packaging isn’t a win if it makes your product heavier and increases the carbon footprint involved in transporting it.
Question 3: Where does my product go?
The ‘receiving environment’ (where your packaging ends up) matters. This could be a commercial environment (e.g. the packaging for raw materials used in a factory), a home (e.g. the packaging for a consumer durable) or the wider environment (e.g. the packaging for a takeaway sandwich consumed ‘on the go’). These are some things to consider.
What recycling options are available? The country and region will be important. In both Australia and New Zealand, only relatively small amounts of recyclable plastic are actually recycled.
Is the infrastructure in place to collect your packaging once it’s been used? Recycling may be relatively simple in urban areas, with their weekly rubbish collections, but it can be harder outside the main centres. The carbon emissions generated in a 10 km drive to the nearest recycling centre will negate all your good intentions with your packaging.
Do priorities differ by place? People living near the coast may be keen to keep plastic waste out of waterways. For people in rural areas, the priority may be reducing carbon emissions to minimise the climate crisis. Consumer behaviour plays a huge role in managing packaging waste at your product’s end-of-life.
Question 4: Is the impact of alternatives really lower?
Welcome to some surprises – and the benefit of using a science-based, systems approach like Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). LCA measures the environmental footprint of a product over its entire life cycle:
- Extracting, processing and transporting the raw materials used to make it
- Manufacturing the product and transporting it to market
- Using the product
- Disposing of the product or recycling it at the end of its useful life.
Our LCA for New Zealand Post is a good example. We compared six options for postal bags. Our study found that locally manufactured low-density polyethylene (yes, plastic) bags containing 80 percent recycled content had the lowest carbon footprint of the six bags. That’s right. Viewed over their life cycles, a plastic option edged out bags that were compostable at home or made of paper.
Question 5: What are the main issues for my packaging?
An LCA will help you home in on the main issues. For example:
- Where are your raw materials sourced? Do they need to be freighted long distances?
- What happens to the packaging when it’s done its job? Does it decompose, emitting methane and contributing to the climate crisis?
- Are there hidden impacts? For example, does making your packaging emit toxins into local waterways?
Question 6: Should I even focus on the packaging?
Great question! In many cases, your product will have a much greater environmental than your packaging. So if you’re serious about reducing your impacts, start with your product.
Here’s some inspiration from product designers who’ve trodden this path before you. Award-winning lighting designer David Trubridge produces large products that needed a lot of packaging. Guided by an LCA, his team have designed ‘kitset’ products that are packaged flat for customers to assemble. The result: less packaging. Lower packaging and transport costs. A lower carbon footprint.
The form of your product is relevant too. B Corp Ethique produces products like shampoos in solid bars. The result: minimal, paper-based packaging. No more long lines of plastic bottles in the shower caddy. A lower carbon footprint.
Questions 7: Can we do better rather than simply less bad?
Here’s where we need to get to. Cradle to Cradle® Certification (C2C) is one of the world’s most advanced standard for products that are safe, circular and responsibly made. (Circular products keep resources in use for as long as possible.)
- C2C sets globally recognised, science-based requirements for:
- material health (e.g. non-toxic materials)
- material reutilisation
- renewable energy and climate
- water stewardship
- social fairness (e.g. fair working conditions).
Aim high with your packaging!