The great packaging pileup: finding better ways to wrap up our goods

The great packaging pileup: finding better ways to wrap up our goods

Packaging is inescapable: nearly every product produced and sold comes in packaging, a lot of which is used once and thrown away.

How can businesses improve their approach to packaging, maximising its value and eliminating waste?

Is packaging just a necessary evil?‍

Reducing emissions from food production will be one of our greatest challenges in the coming decades.

The global packaging industry generates US$900 billion each year. Packaging is inescapable: nearly every product produced and sold comes in packaging, a lot of which is used once and thrown away.

How many of these packaging examples have you seen or touched in the past week? What others can you see around you at this moment?

The range of applications and varieties of packaging are innumerable. Packaging serves a form and function, and it isn’t a case of one size fits all: for every product, there are a different set of requirements. Add to that, packaging can be a branding tool for businesses, right into the customer’s hands. On the other hand, as any product business, retailer or customer knows, the amount of secondary and primary packaging waste we generate each day is untenable.

With all this in mind, how can businesses clarify their decision making process about packaging? What does it take to eliminate packaging, or innovate so that its embedded energy and value can be maximised? How can businesses reduce the amount of packaging they are using, and help keep materials in the economy so they don’t become waste or leak into the environment? How can businesses help improve our current systemic approach to packaging? 

What follows isn’t a definitive instruction manual or materials science primer. Instead, we invite you to join us as we unpack the pickle of packaging, shine a light on some of the developments and impacts, and help you on your way to making responsible decisions in your own business. 

When ‘eco-friendly’ backfires: the cautionary tale of the plastic bag

Plastic bags designed to reduce waste

In 1959, a Swedish engineer named Sten Gustaf Thulin struck upon an invention that would change the world: the humble plastic carrier bag. Using high density polyethylene (HDPE) - invented a short time earlier by Karl Ziegler and Erhard Holzcamp in 1953 - Thulin’s plastic bag was heralded as an environmentally friendly alternative to the paper carrier bag that was in common use: doing away with the need to cut down trees to produce the bags, and made from a lightweight material that was water resistant, economical to produce, and able to be used over and over again.

Originally patented in 1962 - and improved upon in a 1965 patent to add cutout handles - the plastic bag quickly rose to prominence. By 1979, plastic bags accounted for 4 in 5 carrier bags in Europe, and began making waves across the pond in the States, where major supermarket chains made the switch. By the end of the 1980s, plastic bags were well and truly dominant globally.

Plastic bags become single-use

This meteoric rise in the production of plastic bags, and their behavioural association as “single use” items, is not at all what Thulin had pictured. As Raoul Thulin, the son of the plastic bag’s inventor, told the BBC:

“To my dad, the idea that people would simply throw these away would be bizarre.”

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

In 1997, avid sailor Charles Moore was making his return journey across the Paci!c Ocean following the Transpacific Yacht Race. Diverting off the usual course, Moore discovered what we now know as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch: an area filled with plastic waste estimated to cover 1.6 million square kilometres (roughly the area of Iran).

A scientific review of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans found that plastic bags and other ‘film-like items’ were the most commonly ingested type of plastic and a major cause of death for marine life.

The impacts of single-use plastic bags extend beyond the problem of ocean plastics, but this example alone shows that the story of plastic bags is a cautionary one: once seen as an environmentally promising alternative to paper and intended for repeated use, the present environmental harm of these items is difficult to quantify.

How do we avoid good ideas leading to new problems?

While the plastic bag was Thulin’s invention, what happened next was largely out of his hands, and down to the decision-making of major businesses across the globe. 

For every new packaging innovation, how can we avoid the pitfalls of this cautionary tale? How can businesses be mindful of the potential unintended consequences of their packaging decisions, and act to mitigate them? How can businesses shape customers’ behaviour away from treating packaging as single-use? These are essential questions, but do not come with easy answers.

Current dynamics at play 

The current context for businesses making packaging decisions is impacted by several major dynamics: growing qualms and activism regarding the impact of our packaging choices on the natural environment, the heightened concern around hygiene in the face of the Covid pandemic, and the rapid rise of ecommerce.

Environmental responsibility hits the mainstream

In the past few years, the world has woken up to the fact that our reliance on single-use packaging - particularly single-use plastic - is wreaking all kinds of havoc on our environment. Customers are becoming increasingly concerned with the impacts of packaging, and businesses are under increasing scrutiny to opt for eco-friendly alternatives.

“For consumer products, packaging has come into sharper focus. We are recognising the impact of the packaging in addition to the product itself, including the vast amount of resources used to produce packaging and the low rates of recycling and composting for most packaging materials." - Monica Becker, Director, Beauty, Personal Care and Household Products, Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute

"Plastic from packaging is building up in the ocean, piling up in landfills and being burned in incinerators creating harmful emissions. We need to fundamentally rethink and redesign packaging systems for the circular economy and, in some cases, the form of the product itself (for example a switch from liquid body wash to a solid bar) to allow reductions in packaging overall and particularly in single use packaging.”

Many of us are intuitively aware of a general shift towards a wider sense of environmental responsibility and a related urgency for people and businesses to respond. This bears out in recent studies:

A recent survey looking at the impacts of Covid-19 across generations in Brazil and Portugal found that environmental awareness, sustainable consumption, and social responsibility have become front-of-mind concerns for a growing number of people since the pandemic.

The ‘Peoples’ Climate Vote’ - a survey of public opinion on climate change published in 2021 by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) - reports that responses from 1.2 million people across 50 countries show almost two thirds (64%) of the population identifying climate change as an emergency.

A study by Mastercard across 24 countries showed that close to 3 in 5 people (58%) are more aware of their own environmental impact since the pandemic, with a similar proportion (62%) agreeing that ‘it’s now more important than before that companies behave in a more sustainable and eco-friendly way’. The most common issues that respondents wanted businesses to address were to reduce waste, reduce pollution, and address plastic pollution from packaging and products.

Perceptions vs. reality of ‘eco-friendly’

However, customer perceptions of what ‘eco-friendly’ means do not always line up with the reality of a particular packaging material’s impact on the environment, and the solutions and alternatives are not always straightforward.

Not only do we see a proliferation of different types of packaging to fit the form and function of various products, but businesses and customers alike must navigate a way through the complexities of packaging materials and claims, which create more questions than answers: is biodegradable packaging more sustainable? Is recycled plastic up to the task? What does compostable really mean? Are closed loop systems really financially viable for our business?

Context matters too: recyclable packaging doesn’t mean much without accessible and functional recycling infrastructure; home compostable packaging may well end up in landfill if people don’t have composting systems at home. The most environmentally sound packaging choice in one location may not work in another.

Environmental responsibility is more than a ‘nice to have’

For businesses wanting to improve the credentials of their product packaging, even beginning to know what questions to ask can be a daunting task. 

But these developments mean that developing a more environmentally responsible approach to product packaging is not merely a ‘nice to have’ for businesses, but is increasingly being seen by customers as a new benchmark.

“Companies have different reasons to get on board with Cradle to Cradle Certified®. Some are seeking a comprehensive sustainability roadmap for their products and manufacturing practices; others are looking for external guidance to improve their operations or verification of the good work that they’re doing and a robust certification to support their green product claims." - Monica Becker, Director, Beauty, Personal Care and Household Products, Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute

"In some cases, they might want to be recognised on a retailer’s sustainable shopping platform, such as Amazon Climate Pledge Friendly. Many retailers are developing these platforms to showcase sustainable products and are leaning on Cradle to Cradle Certified.”

At the same time, companies are increasingly expected to be accountable for the environmental impact of their products and activities, and report on these accordingly.

“For established companies, they are all too familiar with the requirement for sustainability reports whereby they have to report on and quantify their carbon footprint and other environmental factors. So they are already taking steps in this direction, although in Malaysia it may be a little bit slower... but already, increasingly there is a lot of interest for more eco-friendly and sustainable solutions for their plastic materials.” -YC Lai, Co-Founder of EcoPacific (M) Sdn Bhd

YC Lai is the Founder of EcoPacific in Malaysia, which supplies a range of bio-compostable packaging products made from agricultural waste product rice straw..

Heightened hygiene becomes the norm

A largely opposing force to this trend has been the increased emphasis on hygiene in the time of Covid-19.  

‘On the negative end of the balance sheet, the pandemic has also seen the suspension of recycling programs, plastic bag bans, reusable bags, and coffee cups... Fear of infection transmission has reduced public appetite for bulk food items... and unpackaged fresh produce and conversely has increased demand for prepackaged food items.’ (216) - Andrews et al. (2021), COVID-19 and Similar Futures

Research into the impacts of Covid-19 on consumer behaviour observed that customers have ‘become more sensitive towards health and hygiene’. Single-use bans in some cities were lifted during the pandemic, and plastic packaging increased as a public health protection measure.

Chris Murray, of packaging multinational DS Smith, told Packaging Europe that he expects hygienic packaging ‘to be a lasting priority once the Covid-19 pandemic eases’, with two in three people concerned about people having touched products before them in stores. Tamper-proof packaging, antimicrobial packaging and other hygiene measures may become more common.

We will see whether or not this trend will continue after the pandemic, although hard won behaviour changes (such as reusable bags and coffee cups) may take time to reset.

The rise of ecommerce

From 2015 to 2020, global ecommerce revenue grew by almost three times, reaching US$4.28 trillion. Ecommerce still makes up a minor share of total retail sales, accounting for about 20%, however, this is growing year on year. 

The growth of online shopping, accelerated by the pandemic, is here to stay, with McKinsey reporting that around ‘three-quarters of people using digital channels for the first time during the pandemic say they will continue using them when things return to “normal”.’

What does the rise of ecommerce mean for packaging? Increased sales alone aren’t the only cause for more packaging materials in use.

“Despite technological advancements, increasing length of global supply chains for products has led to a simultaneous increase in the use of packaging layers and associated waste along the supply chain.” - Mehereshi et al. (2019)

Ecommerce packaging needs to be three to four times more robust than ‘traditional onshelf packaging’ so that it can withstand shipping and handling. 

With stock being moved through different world regions, varying levels of humidity and other environmental factors mean that packaging must be more durable. Writing about packaging waste from ecommerce:

“A typical ecommerce parcel may use up to seven types of packaging materials: paper, envelopes, cardboard box, plastic bags, woven bags, tape, and buffer materials (bubble wrap, styrofoam).” - Chueamuangphan et al. (2019)

Packaging Europe reports that the number of touch points on an ecommerce package can be twenty times higher than brick-and-mortar retail items, with more packages travelling through various logistics networks to reach their final destination.

Whereas in a traditional retail setting, products can arrive in bulk and packed on a pallet, for ecommerce purchases, each product is packaged to reach the customer, in turn creating more packaging waste. 

A recent systematic review of sustainability in ecommerce packaging notes that over packaging is a persistent problem leading to ‘overuse of materials and energy’.

The concrete realities of packaging 

There’s no doubt about it, we demand a lot from packaging.

It needs to: 

• serve a practical function 
  
  • Contain the product contents 
  • Protect the products being transported and stored 
  • Extend shelf life (particularly for food and cosmetics) 
  • Be easy and safe to use
• be cost effective, particularly at scale, which includes the costs of production, its bulk and weight
• be made of readily available materials
• align with the product’s brand identity and marketing and ideally delight customers, encourage repeat purchases
• take into account the environmental impacts of their packaging.

For any business aiming to improve existing products’ packaging, or introduce a new product to market, the early design phase of a product or packaging punches above its weight in terms of its potential environmental impact across the product life cycle.

“...although only 5–7% of the entire product cost is attributable to early design, the decisions made during this stage lock in 70–80% of the total product cost... one can hypothesise the same to be the case for environmental impacts. That is, whether or not a product is relatively sustainable is largely determined during the early design stage.” - Ramani et al

The good news is that businesses do not need to reinvent the wheel: there are many tools available to help businesses design better packaging, as well as global standards and certifications that provide external validation of a product’s packaging.

Case study: How an HP shipping box redesign made an impact at scale

HP, the second biggest seller of PCs globally, shows how redesigning even minor elements of packaging can lessen their environmental impact, while also creating a cost saving.

Need to reduce the weight and materials of shipping boxes

As BillerudKorsnäs outlines, every year, HP produces close to 40 million laptops in China, many of which are shipped to Europe and the US. HP was looking for a way to reduce the weight of the boxes they shipped the laptops in to reduce shipping costs, while maintaining the boxes’ sturdiness during transit.

Alternative paper fibres make the difference

By replacing the internal fluting of each box with alternative paper fibres, they reduced the weight of each box by 62 grams. While this redesign may seem insignificant, over the course of a year, it equates to 2500 fewer tonnes of paper fibres, and a reduction of close to 5000 tonnes of carbon emissions in transporting the boxes.

As this example illustrates, reducing the environmental harm of packaging can also make a difference to the bottom line.

“While the higher-quality packaging material itself costs roughly the same as the previous boxes, the new solution does have an economic as well as an environmental benefit: reducing the boxes’ weight by 18 percent results in air freight cost savings of $3 million to $5 million annually.” - BillerudKorsnäs

For a company producing computer devices, there are obviously massive social and environmental questions at play: the use of rare earth minerals; complex supply chains and risks of modern slavery; the emissions embedded in producing and transporting laptops around the world; the problem of e-waste; and so on. While complex problems persist, achievable, incremental solutions are possible.

Case study: How ketchup went big to solve the smallest part of their packaging

The bottle cap preventing recyclability

Heinz is famous for their tomato ketchup, with the iconic squeezy bottle synonymous with the category. While the bottle itself has long been made from recyclable PET plastic, the bottle cap is a mix of 2 components: the rigid plastic twist top, and a silicone leak-proof valve. This mixed componentry has prevented the recyclability of the ketchup lid for the one billion units sold globally each year.

As part of its public commitment to make all packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025, Heinz needed to find a way to make the ketchup bottle lid recyclable.

“The unique new cap – made of an innovative single type of material – has been created after Heinz invested eight years of research and development involving more than 185,000 hours and investing US$1.2 million to find a suitable replacement cap for their convenient and extremely popular squeezy bottles, which sold one billion units globally in 2020.” - Heinz media release on BusinessWire

An extensive design process yields a result

Heinz went through an extensive range of options to develop the optimal design:

“Heinz created 45 different designs in total on the mission to create the new cap, which were printed in-house using a state-of-the-art 3D printer. After creating the prototypes, Heinz then followed a rigorous testing procedure to make sure the cap met the highest quality standards.”

The time and money spent by Heinz in developing a recyclable bottle cap is impressive, and given the volume of their annual product sales, this seemingly minor change may go on to create a major positive impact at scale. Heinz’s investment in the project was a success, as they introduced the first fully recyclable cap (making the entire squeeze bottle recyclable) to market in 2022.

So, does it take years of testing and millions of dollars to make a design change?

However, this level of investment in research and development for a single component is out of reach for many product businesses. Anna Ross, Founder and Director of Kester Black, provides insight into the challenges of working to improve cosmetic packaging where the existing options are limited:

“The thing that is really difficult for us is nail polish [packaging]. That is the one that we have the most challenges with. The cap is PP, which is not home recyclable. Then the wand is made of something else, and the bristles are made of nylon. Those kinds of cosmetic packaging are really difficult because there’s just not really a solution." - Anna Ross, Founder and Director, Kester Black

"Yes, we can make them out of post-consumer recycled plastics if we have a minimum order quantity of 300,000, but then they’re still not recyclable at the end of life anyway.”

For companies that can afford to do so, the potential for industry-wide acceleration towards less environmentally harmful packaging could be profound, if they chose to make their particular innovations open sourced and publicly available.

“When you come up with something that’s innovative in packaging design, it needs to be open sourced.” - Anna Ross, Founder and Director, Kester Black

While this may seem counterintuitive - to simply ‘give away’ an element of a brand’s competitive advantage - it sends a clear signal that the company’s motivations behind their sustainability commitments are truly for the good of the planet, and positions that business as a leading innovator in their field.

While some packaging redesigns may require years of testing and millions of dollars, many do not. 

A business team can make time to review existing packaging, and analyse the reasons for selecting its particular materials and design; then to critically examine the reasons why a packaging choice was made, and research whether better alternatives now exist.

Anna Ross speaks about this shift in thinking:

“We’ve gone back to our roots and revisited our sustainability plan. That prompted us to go back and ask, ‘Why are we doing all of this stuff"?’ Some of the reasons why we’re doing it is because there’s no other [packaging] option at the moment. - Anna Ross, Founder and Director, Kester Black

"And some of it’s because I hadn’t thought about it... It does take time to think through all of this, but it’s given me a really good grounding process to make sure that we meet all our criteria before we even launch a product this time, instead of trying to retrofit it.

We’ve made a lot of great decisions in the past with the kinds of rules that we created around shipping boxes and printed material for anything that comes in cardboard. We’ve eliminated all of our soft plastics, even if they’re a hundred percent carbon neutral, recycled bioplastics - we’ve removed them because they are not recyclable at the end of life."

Avoiding the next plastic bag: think about the big picture

Our opening cautionary tale about the plastic bag started off well: here was an invention that reduced the need for trees to be cut down, was economical to produce, and was durable and lightweight. The story reminds us that the best intended packaging plans can fall over if they do not take into account the wider system they are a part of.

A change in materials may be a good forward step, but understanding how a packaging change fits within the bigger picture is key. It can be hard to foresee and mitigate the negative effects of a new product packaging option, but frameworks we’ll explore can help with this.

Seeing the whole story with life cycle assessments

On the question of environmental impacts, businesses can find out which designs and packaging materials are the most environmentally sound for their particular products through a life cycle assessment.

A life cycle assessment evaluates the impacts of a product from the extraction of raw materials through to post-consumer use, and indicates a product’s footprint.

“Package design should also be subjected to LCA in order to ensure that the ensuing solutions are more environmentally friendly than the original ones.” - Escursell et al. (2020)

Benefits of a life cycle assessment include: How to go about an LCA

• Seeing the whole story: An LCA prevents the common trap of only thinking about one part of a product’s life, e.g. disposal
• Comparison: An LCA accounts for the resources and emissions invested in a product and tables these in a product life cycle inventory, which means a business can clearly compare products against one another to assess their impacts.
• Results can be counter-intuitive: When all the factors are taken into account, sometimes the results of an LCA contradict our perceptions of what the most environmentally sustainable option might be, and can help us act on more than just good intentions. See this worked example by sustainability consultants Quantis comparing real popcorn vs. polystyrene corn as packing material: when compared on volume, polystyrene is found to be the more environmentally friendly option.

Still, it’s not without challenges: 

• Technical process: It’s a time consuming, technical process that may require experts to consult
• Not easily transferrable: It isn’t possible to read off an answer as to the best packaging choice from one context to another - packaging that is more environmentally friendly in one country may not be in another, depending on recycling infrastructure and policies, distances the product travels, consumer recycling habits, presence of circular economy markets.

How to go about an LCA

Commonly, businesses will contract consultants to carry out a life cycle assessment. Life cycle assessments can be highly technical, potentially expensive endeavours.

“Traditionally, performing one single life cycle assessment could take months of work due to the large amount of data that needs to be collected from the value chain.” - Packaging Strategies

As this is potentially a costly exercise, there are other tools available for businesses wanting to get started.

OpenLCA is an open source life cycle assessment tool: free to download, it’s a technical application and takes some time to understand, but manuals, case studies, and training programs are available.

Alternatively, several paid online LCA tools exist, such as the LCA Calculator.

Of course, your life cycle assessment will be based on the particularities of your context.

“Although methodological tools like life cycle assessment (LCA) can enable quanti!cation of environmental burdens and impacts over the whole life cycle of a product, they can even increase the risk of greenwashing if poorly conducted or communicated. The same is true when packaging sustainability protocols and guidelines are followed in a too narrow way.” - Dr. Gregor Radonjič, Professor at the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Maribo

There are no silver bullets, but the LCA provides an internationally accepted method for substantiating claims and decisions about a product and its packaging from an environmental standpoint.

For businesses that have the resources to conduct them, think about sharing your assessments openly with other business leaders, so that knowledge of these tools can be more accessible.

Framework: a packaging ideation workshop

Ellen Macarthur Foundation

Your business may not be ready to embark on a life cycle assessment, but there are other frameworks and tools that are freely available.

The Ellen Macarthur Foundation provides a free packaging ideation workshop template that sets out the following steps:

1. Eliminate: can a packaging component be eliminated altogether? Does it serve an essential function?

2. Reuse: if packaging is needed, can it be redesigned to enable reuse?

3. Material circulation: if packaging can’t be eliminated or reused, how can the packaging use materials that can be recirculated (e.g. through recycling)?

The template provides teams with a step-by-step guide to think about packaging design through an environmental lens.

The Ellen Macarthur Foundation template focuses first on the elimination of any unnecessary packaging.

There are obvious examples, as highlighted in this video - multi-packs wrapped in additional plastic, or bottled and canned goods connected by plastic tags or shrink wrapped together. 

WRAP UK has called for its members to remove additional plastic wrapping from multi-sale packs, and eliminate as far as possible wrapping of uncut fruit and vegetables.

While shifting from one packaging material to another may create some positive bene fits, the potential environmental gains don’t compare to those of reducing single-use packaging wherever possible and prioritising reusable packaging.

“Replacing one disposable product (e.g. made of plastic) with another disposable product made of a  different material (e.g. paper, biodegradable plastic) is only likely to transfer the burdens and create other problems.” - UN Environment Programme

Any packaging material, whatever its credentials, will create some degree of negative impact on the environment.

Still, subtle reductions in packaging can add up at scale, as our later case studies will show.

Framework: a global standard and for product and packaging design

Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute

A further packaging framework comes from the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute: a global non-profit organisation that provides a science-based multi-attribute certification for products and packaging. Monica Becker explains further:

“The story really begins in 2002, with the publishing of the book, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. The authors put forward a revolutionary design framework that is even more relevant today than it was perhaps in 2002. The design framework is characterised by three principles derived from nature: 

• That everything is a resource for something else  
• To use clean and renewable energy 
• To celebrate diversity

These cradle-to-cradle principles became a founding school of thought for the circular economy.” - Monica Becker, Director, Beauty, Personal Care and Household Products, Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute

The Cradle to Cradle global standard for product and packaging design focuses on five areas

1. Material Health: ensuring materials are safe for humans and the environment

2. Product Circularity: enabling a circular economy through regenerative products and process design

3. Clean Air & Climate Protection: protecting clean air, promoting renewable energy, and reducing harmful emissions

4. Water & Soil Stewardship: safeguarding clean water and healthy soils

5. Social Fairness: respecting human rights and contributing to a fair and equitable society.

“The Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute has a vision of a world where safe materials and products are designed and manufactured in a prosperous circular economy to maximise health and wellbeing for people and planet." - Monica Becker, Director, Beauty, Personal Care and Household Products, Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute

For businesses considering certifying their materials, product or packaging via Cradle to Cradle Certified, there are several benefits:

• A holistic approach to packaging across the five areas
• Globally recognised standard y Third-party assessment supports the credibility of the certification
• Emphasis on progress over perfection, with score cards showing areas for improvement while acknowledging steps in the right direction (basic, bronze, silver, gold, platinum), with reassessment every two years
• Provides guidance and support to businesses undergoing certification
• Recognises the complexity of packaging, and offers a number of ways for businesses to approach improving their packaging.

So what might the Cradle to Cradle certification look like in practice?

Case study: How L’Oreal is innovating their packaging materials with Cradle to Cradle Certi!ed

As the world’s largest cosmetics company, L’Oreal has seen impressive profit growth in recent years. Brands in its portfolio include Garnier, Maybelline, Lancome, Kiehl’s, Urban Decay and Redken, as well as the eponymous L’Oreal brand.

A number of their products have been Cradle to Cradle certified, and they have made a commitment to reach 100% recycled plastic in their packaging by 2030.

“L’Oreal is working to make Redken and Maybelline packaging more circular via high levels of post-consumer recycled content and design for recyclability. - Monica Becker, Director, Beauty, Personal Care and Household Products, Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute

"The company has set industry leading commitments on packaging circularity and is pursuing circularity of packaging in many different ways."

"For example, the Redken line of hair care products, which is Cradle to CradleCertified, their packaging materials are at least 93% post-consumer recycled content and designed for recycling, using single materials to make their plastic bottles more readily recyclable in current recycling systems." - Monica Becker, Director, Beauty, Personal Care and Household Products, Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute

"A few months ago, another brand of L’Oreal - Maybelline - developed a new line of makeup called Green Edition. That line was launched with Cradle to Cradle Certification."

"The Superdrop Tinted Oil, which is part of this line, has a glass bottle made from 20% recycled material. The lip blush cap and the base is made with 95% recycled plastic.

600 tons of virgin plastic avoided through the use of recycled materials L’Oreal estimates that since 2018, approximately 600 tons of virgin plastic has been replaced with recycled materials. 

At the same time, they’re investing in the development of new state-of-the-art circular packaging materials, including plastic bottles made from industrial carbon emissions. They’re also investing in a new enzymatic, plastic recycling technology.

They’re leading the way in designing their products’ packaging to be more circular, but also investing in innovative materials and recycling processes for the systems and materials of the future.”

There’s more to say about circular packaging solutions, which we’ll get into later; but before we get there, let’s lay the groundwork on packaging materials at play.

A quick guide to common packaging materials (and a few not so common)

The sheer variety of packaging options and requirements for different products makes choosing the right packaging materials inherently complicated.

Short of eliminating packaging altogether, businesses need to decide on the most appropriate materials for their products that fulfil the list of demands noted in

This section provides a broad sweep of common packaging materials to serve as a starting point. There are comprehensive packaging materials libraries available online, for instance MatWeb and MaterialConnexion, that offer detailed information about the properties of thousands of substrates, for those wanting to dig further.

Plastics 

Compared to other traditional packaging materials, plastic is relatively new on the scene. Following World War II, the introduction of HDPE (#2 plastics) made plastic production affordable at scale.

Since then, plastic packaging has become so popular because it is relatively cheap to produce, and has a range of potential qualities: durable, non-porous, lightweight, it can be food-safe, flexible or rigid, and easily moldable.

“It is important to keep in mind that plastic is a unique material with many benefits: it’s cheap, versatile, lightweight, and resistant." - Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser of Our World in Data note

"This makes it a valuable material for many functions. It can also provide environmental benefits: it plays a critical role in maintaining food quality, safety and reducing food waste. The trade-offs between plastics and substitutes (or complete bans) are therefore complex and could create negative knock-on impacts on the environment.”

In 2015, global production of plastics reached 381 million tonnes, 200 times that of 1950. The UN Environment Programme estimates that we produce 300 million tonnes of plastic waste every year.

The Basel Convention, citing Geyer et al. 2017, reports that packaging accounts for 45% of global plastic consumption. 

The World Economic Forum sets out the main plastic resin types and their applications in packaging (see chart below). The packaging examples listed give a sense of how pervasive plastic packaging is in our economy.

“Besides PET, other plastic products have poor recyclability. There are thousands of different plastic products that are categorised under seven resin codes." - World Economic Forum

"For recycling, these plastics must be sorted differently given the variations in characteristics even among the same resin group (mainly melting points).

This dynamic affects the recyclability potential of other plastics requiring investments in infrastructure to allow for cost effective collection and sorting of these plastics. (21)"

Tom Szaky, CEO of TerraCycle, identifies four categories of plastic packaging types that are currently destined for landfill:

Exceptions include emerging platforms like TerraCycle, which take on soft plastics and multi-material packaging for recycling. Some northern European countries have had more success with recycling rates of expanded polystyrene, as high as 80% in Denmark. Still, for now, these are exceptions to the rule.

PET plastic can be a more cost effective option than other packaging materials, on a unit-for-unit comparison. What may come as a surprise is that in some cases, a glass bottle may be cheaper to produce than a PET bottle (US$0.08 versus $0.12 in this example).

Transportation costs are a different story: a glass bottle may be more than 10 times heavier than a plastic bottle, with the heavier glass bottles needing 40% more energy to transport, at a cost up to five times higher than plastic bottles.

This means that a single-use plastic bottle may turn out to be a more economical and less environmentally costly option than a single-use glass bottle (though single-use is never the ideal).

“once-in-a-lifetime increases in plastic packaging pricing as a result of weather events, infrastructure breakdown, Covid-19, and labour shortages... Prices of major packaging resins, such as PET, were up USD 0.26/lb, or 48.6%, in 2021. - Rabobank

Recent events in Ukraine continue the upward pressure on packaging resins, with regional PET prices increasing by USD 0.20/lb in the first two months of 2022.”

Paper and paperboard/cardboard

‍

Paperboard packaging was common before the advent of commercially available plastics, and continues to be a popular choice. 

More than 420 million tons of paper and paperboard are produced each year, with about half of this used for packaging. Globally, around 55% of all cardboard is still made by cutting down trees, but the majority of logging is now performed in a controlled, renewable way, as certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and others. 

Many types of paper-based packaging can be recycled. However, unlike materials such as aluminium, paper and paperboard are not indefinitely recyclable. The cellulose fibres that make up paper shorten during the recycling process, reducing their strength. In theory, paper and paperboard materials could be recycled up to 6 or 7 times, before the fibres break down too much.

At this point, what is left is a ‘paper sludge’, containing residues of inks, adhesives and other chemicals that make it difficult to return to the environment in a sustainable way. Because of the loss of strength, businesses can run into challenges when using fully recycled paper and cardboard. Anna Ross explains further:

“Our own rule is to use 100% recycled cardboard, or otherwise FSC certified. There are problems with 100% recycled cardboard when you’re making boxes, for example." - Anna Ross, Founder and Director, Kester Black

"Virgin material has longer strands, and so it creates the nicest stock. When that stock is folded, the folds on the corner of the boxes stay together. When you fold recycled cardboard, it splits in half down the seam. So there are limitations for making boxes that have enough rigidity for shipping products.

When we box our products, we would go for 100% recycled material if we can. But then when we do, because of the splitting edges problem, we’d have to usually coat it - and the coatings are usually plastic. So we actually go for FSC certified material because at least that is from a renewable source. But if we make postcards, we make them on a hundred percent recycled stock because they don’t have to be bent.”

Paper and paperboard are limited in that they are permeable to liquids and gases, and not heat sealable. To overcome this, these materials are often combined with other materials: laminated or wrapped with a plastic film or aluminium foil, or treated with wax. However, many recycling facilities are unable to process coated or laminated paper or cardboard packaging.

From a commercial standpoint, paperboard and cardboard can be considerably heavier and bulkier than plastic packaging, with potentially higher costs to transport and store.

As of March 2022, Rabobank reports that US corrugated cardboard - a major paper packaging type for food products - has seen five price increases since the onset of the pandemic, and expects prices to continue to rise through 2022, attributed to a combination of rising energy and fuel costs, as well as a limited supply of corn starch (a small but important part of paper production).

Recycled paperboard is slightly more expensive than virgin paperboard, mainly due to a higher fibre cost.

Aluminium

Aluminium has a range of packaging applications. It can be made into cans - think soft drinks and deodorant - and can also be rolled into sheets for use as aluminium foil and food trays. Whereas paper packaging materials break down after 5 or 6 recycling cycles, aluminium retains its properties inde!nitely.

Another common use for aluminium in packaging is as part of a mixed-material (composite) ‘metallised plastic film’, often used in chocolate bar wrappers and potato chip packets. These films are multi-layered and very difficult to recycle.

In terms of its environmental credentials, aluminium, in theory, is in!nitely recyclable, and commonly accepted in kerbside municipal recycling programs.

However, the production of virgin aluminium is environmentally costly: it involves mining for bauxite, which can contribute to the destruction of habitats and soil erosion.

The smelting process (used to extract metals from the original ores) requires signi!cant energy, and releases emissions. The exact impacts of these factors depend on each context where virgin aluminium is produced.

That said, the fact that aluminium is fully recyclable (when not as part of a composite film) means that the energy and land use associated with producing virgin aluminium is largely avoided through recycling: recycling aluminium uses around 95% less energy than producing virgin aluminium, where the material is cast and rolled, and formed into a new packaging component.

Lokesh Sambhwani, Co-Founder of Recube in India, a social company providing waste-free packaging solutions, explains how they opted for aluminium bottles in the initial rollout of their Refillable platform (featured later in this report), as it struck a balance between environmental considerations as a potentially in!nitely reusable and recyclable material, and cost considerations as a relatively affordable option for customers.

“[The packaging material] had to be infinitely reusable and recyclable. We had the options of aluminium and stainless steel. In terms of costliness, a steel bottle was five times the cost of an aluminium bottle." - Lokesh Sambhwani, Co-Founder, Director of Operations and Collaborations, Recube India

"While the Indian economy is evolving every day, customers would not be okay with the fact of paying $10 for one particular item of packaging itself. So we chose aluminium bottles, because $1 does not really hurt the pocket. That’s essentially what drove our decision.”

From a price standpoint, Rabobank acknowledges “a price increase of over 40% in the past two years” for aluminium in the US. Producers may face aluminium can shortages over the next year or so. The real economic and environmental benefits of aluminium may be found in its suitability for re!ll/reuse systems (see the Beauty Kitchen case study explored later). 

Glass

Glass is one of the world’s oldest packaging materials. Soda-lime glass is the most common type of glass, and the most popular for packaging. It’s comparatively inexpensive, durable, and easy to form into various shapes.

While soda-lime glass is recyclable, other forms of glass, such as borosilicate (used for products like Pyrex dishes) are not recyclable.

Glass is non-reactive to most chemicals, and impermeable to liquids and gases, making it an attractive material for food and beverage packaging, particularly for long-term storage of preserves, pickles(!) and other products, as it does not degrade, can withstand high temperatures, is strong enough for stacking, and is easy to clean and sterilise.

Glass’ impermeability and stability make it a clear choice for perfumes and a range of cosmetics, such as Kester Black’s range of nail polishes:

“When you make a formula and you put it into a glass bottle, that might be the perfect packaging supply for that formula. But as soon as you put it into plastic, it actually degrades the plastic." - Anna Ross, Founder and Director, Kester Black

"There’s a problem with putting, for example, essential oils into plastic. That’s why they’re always found in glass because they don’t stay stable and they ruin the pack.”

Glass is a relatively heavy packaging material, requiring more energy to transport and distribute.

Although glass packaging is commonly recyclable, contamination is a problem, when mixed with non-recyclable types of glass and other ceramics. When contaminated, recycled glass can’t be used for packaging, and is only suitable for downcycled applications, such as an aggregate in construction materials.

Given the UN’s warnings of a global ‘sand crisis’, recycled glass should be used wherever possible.

As with other common packaging materials, global events are driving a price increase in glass. Producers relying on imports of glass have felt the pinch: for instance, the US wine industry is facing a 20% increase in wine bottle costs, while the Australian wine industry, which mainly relies on locally produced glass bottles, has been more protected from price shocks.

For the wine industry in particular, where glass bottles are reported to be their single largest source of emissions, more economically and environmentally sustainable packaging options will become increasingly attractive.

Case study: A recycled plastic wine bottle replacing the traditional glass bottle

Some in the wine industry are working to reduce the environmental impact of their packaging. Garçon Wines designed a flat wine bottle from recycled plastic, that fits the standard 750mL, but is narrow enough to fit through a letterbox. Escersell et al. (2020), in a review of sustainability in ecommerce packaging, explain the benefits of the design as follows: 

• Made from 100% recycled PET, so it will not break in freight deliveries; 
• 100% recyclable after use 
• Weighing only 63 g, it is 87% lighter than a standard glass bottle, so the environmental impact of its transportation is much smaller.

However, because the bottle is made from plastic instead of the traditional glass, “this new form of packaging can alter consumers’ perception and lead them into believing that the wine it contains is of lesser quality.” As customers associate a glass wine bottle with a higher quality product, the use of a less environmentally costly material has created a barrier to acceptance in the market, though this may shift over time.

As this example reveals, glass packaging has retained its place as a ‘high value’ form of packaging, often weighed in favour of alternative materials when it comes to packaging premium and luxury products.

Emerging alternatives

Apart from the usual suspects, new packaging materials are being tested and developed. Many of these are still in early research and trial phases, and don’t represent a commercially viable option at scale, as yet. However, some promising materials are emerging that are commercially available and growing. Here are a couple of examples:

Seaweed packaging

UK based startup Notpla has brought a range of plastic-free seaweed packaging applications to market. From hot or cold water soluble films, to sauce and oil sachets, and lined takeaway boxes, Notpla’s innovative packaging material is made using brown seaweed:

“Growing up to 1 metre per day, [brown seaweed] doesn’t compete with food crops, doesn’t need fresh water or fertiliser and actively contributes to de-acidifying our oceans.” - Notpla

After use, the material is biodegradable in 4 to 6 weeks, and home compostable. From a pricing standpoint, their takeaway boxes are competitively priced. When bought in bulk of 250 or more, their oil pipettes (10ml single serve sachets) are ~39 pence each, compared to ~32 pence for a traditional plastic 10ml oil sachet.

Notpla has been recognised by major brands, partnering with the likes of JustEat Takeaway UK and Heinz to introduce seaweed-based packaging as a plastic-free alternative to single-use packaging.

Most of the current applications are limited to single-use food packaging, though they have also developed a seaweed-based ‘paper’ stock that may be used for a range of applications.

Mycelium packaging

Mycelium, in simplest terms, is the webbed network structure from which mushrooms grow.

In 2006, undergraduate students Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre experimented with mycelium and discovered that it could be formed into a packaging material with similar properties to that of expanded polystyrene (which as discussed, is a largely non-recyclable, environmentally hazardous plastic).

From there, Bayer and McIntyre founded Ecovative in 2007, bringing mycelium packaging materials to market for the first time. As they describe:

“...mycelial networks are unique, extremely fine, and strong, with high tensile strength and the ability to resist water, decay, and immense internal or external pressures. They come from nature, and under the right conditions, return to nature as nutrients… " - Ecovative

"Of course, mycelium won’t just make a shoe or an insulation panel on its own. Human intervention is important, and through our research, Ecovative has learned how to coax fungi into producing premium quality structures and materials.”

The Ecovative expanded polystyrene alternative is made using a combination of mycelium and hemp hurd (a byproduct of hemp fibre production). It breaks down in 45 days through a home composting system, or alternatively, it can be broken into smaller pieces and mixed into the soil.

Mycelium packaging is insulating, water resistant and strong, however it does not last as long as expanded polystyrene.

From a pricing perspective, Mushroom Packaging UK lists corner protectors for shipping products at ~88 pence per unit, which is more than double that of comparable polystyrene shipping corners, at ~39 pence per unit. However, the environmental bene!ts of mycelium packaging far outweigh those of expanded polystyrene. These products may become more commonplace in future years as governments move to restrict or ban the use of expanded polystyrene packaging altogether.

The next challenge: making sense of the mishmash of packaging claims and terms

As discussed, more and more customers expect businesses to use more environmentally friendly packaging; but perceptions don’t always line up with the actual environmental impacts of various packaging options.

A survey of consumer sentiments towards sustainability in packaging by McKinsey revealed that for beverages and household products in particular, customers are requesting more glass packaging. However, life cycle assessments have shown that glass bottles may have a https://earth.org/glass-bottles-environmental-impact/ than their plastic counterparts.

“People see there’s a packaging problem, and decide to use glass, but glass is not the solution either because glass has got a huge environmental footprint. It’s a really interesting dilemma where people are focusing on being plastic free, but actually plastic can have a smaller environmental footprint than glass.” - Anna Ross, Founder and Director, Kester Black

We see an increasing number of “green” claims on packaging. But how much of it is environmentally sound, or greenwashing? It’s diffcult to compare the virtues and vices of different packaging materials because each type of packaging has different impacts at different points in its life.

‘Green Is The New Black’, a 2022 report by Retail Week on UK consumers’ attitudes to sustainability and its impact on their spending habits, found:

“Almost half [of consumers] (49%) believe paper bags to be more sustainable than plastic, and a number of consumers consider [multinational fast fashion retailer] Primark to be the most sustainable brand purely because of its use of paper bags.” - Retail Week

While fast fashion brands, like Primark, are part of an unsustainable system causing massive amounts of waste and pollution, merely using paper bags at checkouts has been enough to create a positive ‘eco-friendly’ perception in the minds of customers.

“Yet there is research to suggest that paper bags tend to have a higher carbon footprint. A UK Environment Agency study uncovered that paper bag production requires more raw materials and energy and produces more waste than the equivalent process for plastic bags. It stated that a paper bag must be used at least three times to decrease its impact on the environment to match that of a plastic bag used just once.” - Retail Week

Recyclable

Recyclable packaging materials are those that can be processed and converted into new materials and products that there is a market for. Recyclability of packaging largely depends on context. Recycling relies on people having access to reliable recycling infrastructure, which is not always available, so effectiveness varies.

As we’ve already seen, single-material packaging is much easier to recycle compared to multi-material packaging.

“Most recyclable plastic claims use the universal recycling symbol and a general statement directing the consumer to recycle. Some provide additional instructions to facilitate proper recycling methods. Others are lacking in guidance or require action from the consumer to enable partial recycling of the packaging…" - UNEP/Consumers Intern

"While these brands should be commended for giving clear instructions to consumers, it could also be argued that they allow companies to shift the burden to consumers. Better designed products and packaging could avoid the need for consumer disassembly in the !fist place.”

A national audit of packaging recycling practices in the UK found a "sixfold increase in exports of packaging material for recycling abroad between 2002 and 2017, with exports accounting for half of the packaging reported as recycled in 2017."

There is little visibility over what happens to the packaging materials once shipped overseas, despite counting these shipments as ‘recycled’.

Added to this, some countries have banned imports of unsorted recycled materials due to concerns about contamination and the burden of waste being shifted across borders.

“A lot of the big manufacturing companies are facing a tremendous shortage of recycled paper, because some of the countries have actually stopped the importation of recycled paper, not to mention recycled plastic. So that is causing a lot of issues and problems for a lot of companies.” - YC Lai, Co-Founder of EcoPacific (M) Sdn Bhd

Recycled content

Recycled content can refer to pre-consumer or post-industrial recycled material: 

Essentially, it is the waste generated from the original manufacturing process that is used again in the same material.

For example, when making soda cans, a roll of aluminium is cut into round pieces that are then moulded into their traditional shape. Scraps from the cutting process are then melted down, rolled again, and the process continues.

It can otherwise refer to post-consumer recycled material. These are materials made from what we put in our recycling bins, which are then sorted, processed into pellets or moulded into new shapes, and sold.

“Companies are shifting to recycled content in packaging and particularly post-consumer recycled content, which is material from packages and other products that consumers have used.” - Monica Becker, Director, Beauty, Personal Care and Household Products, Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute

Post-consumer recycled materials, or PCR, provides a close-loop market for commonly recycled materials.

While a wide range of materials may be technically recyclable, there needs to be sufficient demand for the resulting materials for recycling to make economic sense. The use of PCR content in packaging helps create this demand, while reducing the demand for virgin materials.

As the proportion of PCR content used in packaging can vary from anywhere between 10% and 100%, businesses using PCR content must be transparent about the current ratios in their product packaging.

As demand for post-consumer recycled materials grows, finding an adequate supply can be challenging.

“There’s been such an increase in demand for these materials and the supply hasn’t kept up. Especially now, with supply chain issues, lead times can be long." - Monica Becker, Director, Beauty, Personal Care and Household Products, Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute

"Small companies are finding this particularly challenging since they may have trouble meeting minimum order quantities and are competing with large brands. My advice would be to plan ahead and expect delays.”

Compostable and biodegradable

‘Biodegradable’ as a claim is unevenly regulated and is a catch-all for a range of bio-based or fossil-fuel based materials, with varying conditions needed for the materials to properly break down. All plastics are degradable over time, but to be biodegradable, the materials return to nature when they break down.

“There has been a misuse of the word biodegradable. Not all bio-plastics are biodegradable. If they can degrade into smaller plastic micro-plastic components, that’s all they are: degradable." - YC Lai, Co-Founder of EcoPacific (M) Sdn Bhd

"When we are talking about compostable, we are talking of materials that break down with exposure to temperature, humidity, and so on. They will then break up easily in the soil without any harm to it at all.”

The environmental benefits of biodegradable and compostable packaging can be limited if access to infrastructure and facilities are not readily available. In theory, a piece of packaging may be compostable, but if a composting system is not accessible to consumers, it is likely to end up in landfills.

“Some European countries have more disciplined practices in separating some of these different types of materials, and they have industrial composters to handle them. - - YC Lai, Co-Founder of EcoPacific (M) Sdn Bhd

"But even for the consumer, our bio-compostable packaging products can be composted in the garden. There is no harm, and they will break down over time. The normal compostable period is about 180 days.”

Businesses should think about whether the claims they make on packaging actually work in practice, in their context.

Biobased

Biobased is relevant for packaging where plant-based (biomass) materials are used as feedstock, rather than fossil fuels, which makes for more sustainable production.

EcoPacific is a Malaysia-based supplier of biobased packaging to hospitals and retail settings, which is Cradle to Cradle Certified.

Co-founder YC Lai explains how biomass from rice straws is used to create their lines of packaging products, which include in-patient food trays, fruit and vegetable trays, protective inserts for home appliances and consumer electronics packaging.

“Our products are 100% fibre material converted from paddy straw waste, a biomass material. The rice planters in Malaysia, more often than not, would burn the paddy straw after harvesting rice. Unfortunately this is still a prevailing practice and not just in Malaysia, but in many other countries in the region as well. This is a major cause of air pollution." - YC Lai, Co-Founder of EcoPacific (M) Sdn Bhd

"So we have a good arrangement with the farmers to sell their paddy waste biomass material after they have completed their harvesting so that they would secure supplemental income. We have a long-term arrangement with all these farmers under a cooperative umbrella auspiced by the Kedah State Government, that assisted us to provide all the paddy straw biomass raw material for our manufacturing needs.” - YC Lai

Disposal instructions for these materials are important, as biobased materials are not always biodegradable or compostable, and they can contaminate PCR stocks if not properly separated in recycling plants.

Reusable

A high priority for circular economy solutions, reusable packaging maintains the highest possible value of the material, avoiding the energy use involved in processing materials, and reducing packaging waste.

Problems come when packaging labelled as ‘reusable’ is treated as single-use and disposed of. For example, bans on single-use plastic bags have led retailers to produce ‘reusable’ bags from thicker plastic, which use more resources to produce, and are likely to be disposed of. The UN Environment Programme notes:

“As more governments push to legislate against single-use plastic, the risk of this poor practice may grow.”

For reusable packaging to be effective, it needs to fit within a broader system that supports reuse, be that a return and reuse program, a refill program, and other education initiatives to support customers to continue reusing the packaging. These initiatives are discussed in more detail below.

Exploring further

We’ve touched on some of the common claims on packaging, but this isn’t an exhaustive list. For guidelines on how to use packaging claims and terms, the International Organization for Standardization provides internationally agreed standards for a range of environmental claims, including: compostable, degradable, recyclable, recycled content, pre-consumer material, post-consumer material, recovered material, reusable, refillable. The guidelines for self-declared environmental claims are available in ISO 14021:2016.

Don’t leave us hanging: tell your customers what to do next

Imagine this: your business designs the most refined packaging solution that eliminates unnecessary packaging, reduces the amount of material used, and opts for an environmentally sound packaging material that can be reused or repurposed in some way: sounds good, right?

If your brand then doesn’t clearly communicate to customers about what to do with the item of packaging in their hands, that packaging may well end up contaminating recycling streams, in landfill, or leaking into the environment.

Simply communicating that an item of packaging is, say, “plastic-free”, “made from bioplastic” or “biodegradable” does not give clear direction to the individual holding it about what to do next.

Drivers and barriers to packaging waste avoidance and recycling

A 2022 systematic literature review by Jacobsen et al. looked at the drivers of and barriers to consumers’ plastic packaging waste avoidance and recycling. They identfied “communication of information on functions and environmental consequences of packaging material” and “communication of recycling functions and consequences” as two factors among several driving people’s behaviour. The authors recommend the following:

“The potential for recycling must... be clearly communicated on the packaging, if consumers are to choose an environmentally friendly alternative to plastic packaging. At the same time, it may be worth educating consumers better about the environmental impacts of the earlier stages in the value chain, where companies invest. A better explanation on the possible trade-off between packaging and hygiene/food waste would also support consumers in making an informed choice of the most desirable packaging type for a given product." - Jacobsen et al.

"Generally, there is a need for better consumer education on PPW from an environmental perspective, including both how to avoid and recycle PPW. An increasingly important aspect is new alternatives, such as bioplastics. To be effective, this communication should adapt message content, source, and media to effectively target specific consumer segments.”

Even the universal recycling symbol , while well recognised by consumers, can be misleading:

“... its use without text assumes that all consumers understand its meaning; and/or that all of the product’s material can be recycled. It also only shows that the packaging is recyclable but not that this recycling is actually available via local infrastructure.” - Jacobsen et al.

To comply with the ISO standard 14021, any qualified claims should be clearly explained.

What does good labelling look like in practice?

Guidelines and regulations vary between contexts, as do the packaging processing options available.

As an example, the Australasian Recycling Label is an evidence-based system for packaging labels that provides people with clear direction about what to do with the packaging in their hands.

There are three types of label classifications, relying on a mix of visual and written cues:

This is one example, but there are various other context-specific labelling systems businesses can subscribe to in order to ensure best practices.

Going in circles: what happens when packaging meets the circular economy?

As both the Ellen Macarthur Foundation template and the Cradle to Cradle framework explored earlier indicate, the packaging design process is not limited to eliminating unnecessary packaging and selecting packaging materials.

It’s also about considering the design of systems that enable customers to maximise the embedded value of the packaging through circular processes, like reuse and refill programs.

Circularity as a concept has been gathering steam in recent years, with organisations including the likes of the Ellen Macarthur Foundation, the World Economic Forum, the European Union, as well as certifying and regulatory bodies around the world, such as Cradle to Cradle and APCO, propelling the conversation forward.

Circularity scepticism

Circularity is not without its sceptics: Ken Pucker of Berkshire Partners describes a “misplaced faith in overhyped approaches such as ‘creating shared value’ and ‘the circular economy’”. Pucker argues that these have been “ touted as win-win, pain-free solutions... [using] case studies, not empirical research, as evidence”.

It’s fair to point out a lack of empirical research into circular economy initiatives. As Kumar et al. note, while the concept of a circular economy has become more prominent as “an alternative to the classic use of ‘make-use-dispose’”, the practical implications and opportunities for businesses have not been widely documented in the literature.

One of the reasons that empirical research may be lacking at present is that relative to the size of the packaging industry, modern circular economy packaging solutions are in their infancy, with “trials” still common among major brands.

There are many approaches to circular packaging

Still, as Monica Becker points out, there are a range of options available to businesses to adopt circular approaches in their packaging through the Cradle to Cradle Certification Program:

“There’s not a one-size-!ts-all approach to pursuing circularity in packaging since there are so many different types of packaging needs and approaches. We give companies a menu of options to choose from to demonstrate that there are circularity measures in place for the packaging." - Monica Becker, Director, Beauty, Personal Care and Household Products, Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute

"It could be use of post-consumer recycled content; designing packaging for recycling or composting systems, including use of materials that are recycled at a relatively high rate; it could be designing packaging for reusability or refill-ability. Lightweighting is another option to reduce the material intensity of the packaging.

In our program companies need to demonstrate at least two of those strategies in place for their packaging.”

Case study: In-store product refills - how Asda is tackling customer behaviour change in trials with Unilever and WRAP UK

For instance, Asda, a major supermarket chain in the UK, has been rolling out product refill trials in a handful of stores, to see how suppliers and customers respond. Susan Thomas, Senior Director of Sustainability at Asda, provided this update on the project:

Key barriers to customers embracing the refill system

“Through research conducted in partnership with WRAP and Unilever we’ve learned that despite a hugely positive interest in this offer, the actual customer conversion rates remain fairly low due to a few key barriers to embracing a new way of shopping. Those barriers are really all related to a natural fear of trying something new: 

• What if I do it wrong, or spill it all over the floor?
• Am I allowed to bring my own container or do I need to buy yours every time?
• How much is it going to cost, and will it be cheaper than my usual packaged line? 
• Is it really worth the effort?”

How ASDA is tackling those barriers

“To tackle some of these barriers and drive up participation, we’re running a month of activity in our York store trying interventions recommended by behavioural scientists.

These include providing reassurance, encouragement, explicit price promises and rewards. We’re even trying to stop customers in the main aisle and direct them back to the Refill zone where we guarantee the product will be cheaper.

Many of our brand partners are running events to attract new customers and help them feel confident about giving Refill a try.”

This is an example of a major retailer (Asda), a major supplier (Unilever), and a circular economy expert organisation (WRAP), investing in a small-scale trial of a refill program, and experiencing major barriers to customers actually taking it up.

Still, while circular re!ll systems are a long way from being the ‘default’ option for customers, the research, development, testing and wider implementation of these programs will pave the way for significant, if gradual, behavioural change among customers.

The knowledge sharing and in-progress updates by Asda’s leaders are invaluable, and allow other businesses to take advantage of these learnings and apply them to their own initiatives.

What happens next: refillable and returnable packaging

Circular packaging is not a new idea.

“Waste in itself is a relatively modern idea that came about when it became more economically viable to produce new materials than to repurpose existing ones - and to burn and bury the rest. Up until the 1940s, when mass production, shifts in consumerism, and plastics came into play, things were actually quite circular.” - Tom Szaky, founder and CEO, Terracycle

Either goods would be delivered in reusable packaging (milk deliveries in glass bottles), or customers would shop for products and fill reusable containers that they would return, clean, and use again.

Of course, the current situation is vastly different. Innovations in packaging, particularly plastics, have meant that industries have come to rely on customised packaging that is highly affordable to produce and transport. Customers have come to expect a high level of convenience. Supply chains are far more complex, with online sales only driving the complexity further as cross-border commerce expands and last-mile problems continue.

To make potentially reusable packaging work in practice requires behaviour change and systems change, which are complex problems to solve. Current reusable packaging systems broadly fall into one of four categories:

Case study: The Refillable platform that’s gaining speed in India

One smaller business taking on the challenge is Recube, based in India. One among several platforms they have created is Refillable.

A localised approach to refillable packaging

Refillable is an on-demand service direct to consumers, where a truck or electric bike arrives at a customer’s doorstep, ready to refill common household products into their existing packaging.

Recube Co-Founder Lokesh Sambhwani shared how the Refillable platform began in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic:

“When COVID hit everyone globally at the same point of time, a lot of Indian consumers were hoarding a lot of household products: three months’ supply of hand wash, shampoo, sanitisers - all in loads of packaging. It made us think that we essentially need the product, and not the packaging itself. We were all floating around with the idea of reusable and refillable packaging." - Lokesh Sambhwani, Co-Founder, Director of Operations and Collaborations, Recube India

From a centralised, return-based system to an on-the-spot refill system

The team began a pilot with a select few hundred customers and collaborated with a small number of household product brands.

Originally, they provided aluminium bottles to customers, filled with their chosen products.

“The system worked in a manner that once you’re done using it, we’d collect the old aluminium bottle back and give you another. Six months into the pilot, we thought, why keep returning bottles to the washing centre when we can actually refill at their doorstep itself?” - Lokesh Sambhwani, Co-Founder, Director of Operations and Collaborations, Recube India

This sparked an evolution in the system, from a return-based system to a centralised facility, to a refill-based system.

“Now we have a refill mechanism where our truck comes up to your doorstep. We collect your packaging from your house, we get it back to our re!ll truck, and we have an automated dispensing unit where we refill it directly in their bottle itself…" - Lokesh Sambhwani, Co-Founder, Director of Operations and Collaborations, Recube India

"Six months since launching [the platform], we now have a community of a thousand odd people who are using this on a month-on-month basis. We have a retention rate around 71-72%. The only people who actually leave us are the ones who did not get their preferred brands onto the platform.”

Understanding the pain points to scale up successfully

Refillable is built on a hyper-local model, enabling the team to get real-time feedback from customers about their experience:

“The biggest learning for me would be, don’t rush to do things at scale. It helps you understand the customer really, really well, because only when you understand what the pain points are, will you be able to address these and scale it up successfully.” - Lokesh Sambhwani, Co-Founder, Director of Operations and Collaborations, Recube India

Though currently operating on a relatively small scale, Recube’s Re!llable platform shows how businesses can design systems that support a more environmentally responsible approach to packaging. In line with the Ellen Macarthur Foundation’s guidance, they are eliminating the need for any additional packaging and facilitating a behavioural change in customers. 

At the same time, they are giving existing brands a way to provide existing customers with their products, without the associated costs and waste of traditional packaging formats.

Case study: For Beauty Kitchen in the UK, a successful refill program involves education

Beauty Kitchen is a beauty brand stocked in some of the UK’s leading retailers, including Boots, ASOS, Holland & Barrett, and Sainsbury’s. Cradle to Cradle Certified, Beauty Kitchen has designed and implemented an effective packaging refill system for their line of products.

A return-refill system with packaging to match

“Beauty Kitchen has developed a really exciting program called “Return, Refill, Repeat”, which is a packaging refill system. They have designed their packaging to support the system, made from aluminium and glass jars and bottles. They use sustainable stone paper labels, printed with vegetable inks. They also have recyclable pumps." - Monica Becker, Director, Beauty, Personal Care and Household Products, Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute

"As part of this program, customers can either drop off empty packages at a retailer that they work with - Holland & Barrett, which has a thousand stores - or customers can mail the packaging back to Beauty Kitchen, and then they wash it, refill it and put it back on the shelf.”

Providing options to customers

“They’ve also pioneered a refill station for retail locations. Customers can either get an empty container from the store and fill it, or they can bring in their own container to refill it." - Monica Becker, Director, Beauty, Personal Care and Household Products, Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute

"They’re making it possible to move away from single-use packaging and promoting refilling of packaging, which is high up on the hierarchy of sustainable packaging strategies.”

It’s a significant investment for a business to design and implement a new program of this kind. As Monica Becker notes, the success of Beauty Kitchen’s re!ll system design relies on educating customers and supporting customers to make the change:

Education makes the difference

“Customers are really behind it and supporting it. One of the reasons why is that Beauty Kitchen is doing a fabulous job of educating their customers about the importance of plastic packaging reduction and shifting out of single-use packaging. They credit that educational process with the success and the acceptance of this program by their customers.” - Monica Becker, Director, Beauty, Personal Care and Household Products at Cradle to Cradle

Customers have been primed and trained to dispose of product packaging when empty, and so systems of this kind require a wide-scale shift in customers’ behaviour in order to get traction.

How do we get out of this pickle?

Start with the parts you can solve, now

Take a step back and have a fresh look at the packaging decisions your business has already made. Some questions to help you take stock: 

• What were the reasons for choosing a certain set of materials, a supplier, or a system? Do the reasons for these decisions still stand, or is there room to move?
• What aspects of your current packaging are the most environmentally costly?
• What aspects are the simplest to improve? 
• Are there components in your current packaging that could be removed altogether?

If your business has limited resources to overhaul your packaging, there are inexpensive changes that can make a difference. All packaging creates some degree of environmental cost, but even small steps to reducing that cost can add up over time and at scale. If you can move towards increasing the lasting value of your packaging, you’re doing better today than you were yesterday.

Find your framework

Globally recognised frameworks and certifications are readily available and can help your business to set the course to improve your packaging. We’ve explored a few in this paper, but there may be others you want to explore.

Look for holistic frameworks that take into account the environmental impacts of packaging across the life cycle, and focus on circular solutions.

For more examples of how businesses are innovating and moving towards circularity in their packaging, we recommend the ‘Upstream Innovation’ guide and report by the Ellen Macarthur Foundation.

Get your packaging system working in practice

Help customers change their behaviours and give clear directions

Find out what the best labelling practices and standards are in your country, and update your packaging to comply. Clear communication to customers about what to do with the packaging after they use it will help to make your chosen packaging system more effective in practice. For example:

• Your packaging might be home compostable, but how are you communicating this direction to customers?
• Are there ways you can educate your customers on how they can be part of this system (e.g. how to home compost) and what the bene!ts are?
• How can you incentivise your customers to engage with the re!ll system?

Like the Asda case study, think about any current barriers to the success of the program and how you might mitigate these.

Review your internal processes

There are also opportunities to review and improve your internal team’s processes around packaging:

Do you have visibility of how your team is managing packaging waste?

Are the systems you have in place being followed (e.g. recycling cardboard boxes), and how are you tracking these? Do you have up-to-date data points on your packaging use and wastage? If not, how might you track these?

Whatever systems your packaging fits into, you can take steps to track and ensure that the systems are working properly. If you find they aren’t functioning as well as they could, identify the pain points and work to reduce them. Reliable data is invaluable here, so think about how you can better track how your packaging systems are working in practice.