Product Packaging: Sustainability, Paper, and Beyond

For any business dealing in physical items, packaging plays a part at every stage of the product’s life cycle. To be successful, packaging must conform to and withstand intricate manufacturing and filling processes, insulate the contents from extreme temperatures while maintaining integrity, or protect the product while in transit to a distributor or customer—all while looking fantastic on the shelf or in your customer’s unboxing video. Given all the hats your packaging must wear, and how many different types of products for which it must perform, every business must decide which sustainable solutions meet their individual needs.

Although a product and its packaging are interconnected, they have separate lifecycles. The packaging’s lifecycle begins with sourcing materials—virgin, recycled, or a combination—significantly impacting its eco-story and marketing. Next, packaging undergoes manufacturing processes such as pulping, extrusion, and printing. After this, it must be shipped to and stored in a packing facility, adding environmental and monetary costs not visible to consumers. Eventually, the packaging and product separate, leading to the critical end-of-life stage.

When the buyer purchases a product, they are not only buying the consumable but they’re taking ownership of the packaging as well. That makes the transition of the material from packaging to trash both a visible and personal one.

Circularity, the concept of reusing all or part of the packaging after its primary purpose has passed, is often used when discussing how to reduce packaging waste. While there are several ways to do this, recycling gets the most attention. Composting and reusability have also become more popular recently. Compostable packaging allows the materials to decompose naturally instead of going to a landfill. Reusable packaging will eventually degrade, spreading its environmental impact over time.

Each sustainable option’s complexity and feasibility depend on your product and business model. Not all items marked “recyclable” are truly recyclable, and regional recycling capabilities vary. Compostability can be complex, with products falling into home or industrial compostable categories and limited consumer access to composting facilities. Reusable packaging is costlier and can complicate the supply chain.

Switching to easily recyclable paper can offer substantial sustainability benefits, as Amazon has demonstrated. Paper is the most recycled material in the US, with a 68% recycling rate, and is certified by organizations like the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI). This allows for eco-friendly marketing even with virgin materials. Fully recyclable all paper mailers, or mono-material paper mailers, are curbside recyclable, which enhances their recyclability compared to multi-material packages like traditional bubble mailers.

However, paper has its drawbacks. It is heavy and bulky, which consumes warehouse space and increases transportation costs. These impacts, often overlooked by consumers, can significantly affect both the environmental and monetary cost of using paper packaging. Additional issues include paper’s susceptibility to moisture and difficulty in providing an airtight seal, which may impact its viability.

Glass and aluminum are often used where paper falls short, particularly in the food and beverage industry. Glass is highly recyclable and nearly infinitely reusable but is heavy and prone to breakage, raising transportation costs and carbon footprint. Aluminum cans are lighter and more resilient but still have limitations like rigidity and space requirements.

Plastic, despite its environmental concerns, remains a popular choice due to its low cost, lightweight nature, resiliency, and versatility. Many types are readily recyclable and can be molded into various forms. However, it is the resiliency that allows it to persist in the environment after being discarded. These post-consumer impacts coupled with plastic’s derivation from fossil fuels are what concerns eco-minded consumers when making a purchase decision.

What can be missing from that scene are the environmental savings along the way. For example, despite its poor end-of-life positioning, flexible packaging has been on the rise in recent decades because it has environmental benefits in many situations. Flexible packaging, made of thin plastic layers, offers benefits such as lower costs, reduced carbon cost during manufacture and shipment, and better product protection. Its flexibility reduces damage to both the package and contents during transport, and the air and moisture barriers can be specifically engineered to keep food fresher longer than some alternatives. While sometimes it is chosen because it’s the cheapest option, plastic has a place in the sustainability conversation and not always as the villain.