[NL] Mono-packaging for e-commerce: how sustainable are you already packaging?

Mono packaging is all about packaging using only 1 raw material. So your entire packaging is composed of one single paper, or one single plastic. What you choose does not really matter, as long as it is 1 material that is easy to sort together afterwards. This is good for the environment, of course, but also for the unboxing experience. Because easy sorting gives the end customer a positive conclusion. Are you too ready to opt for mono?

1. What are mono packs?

Mono packaging is a collective term for packaging that has a completely pure composition. Mono’ is a Greek word for ‘one’, and that is what it is all about. Mono packaging can consist of only paper, plastic, aluminium or other materials… provided you don’t mix other raw materials with it.

Thanks to their pure composition, they play a major role in the circular economy. When an entire package is made of just one raw material, it is much easier to sort it together afterwards and reprocess it for recycling. That quickly makes life a lot easier, and more sustainable.

2. What advantages do mono-material packaging have?

E-commerce and sustainability are more inseparable than ever. Your customers look at each package through sustainable glasses and thus assess the ecological footprint of your shop. Mono packaging responds to this perfectly. They provide environmentally-friendly packaging, they contribute to a positive unboxing experience and they comply with the new European Packaging Act. You can read exactly how this works below.

► 2.1 Reduce your environmental impact

After use, mono-packaging can easily be sorted together within the same waste stream. This also makes the recycling process much easier afterwards. As a result, much less waste is lost and, in the long run, we need fewer new raw materials. We call this process a circular economy. Choosing mono-materials therefore guarantees a longer life cycle for our raw materials.

Another closely related point is the reduction of CO2 emissions. When we commit to circularity, less mining is needed as well as less transport of new raw materials – activities that involve quite some CO2 emissions.

► 2.2 Improve your customer experience

In a 2021 survey by Pro Carton, some interesting answers surfaced about eco-friendly packaging. Even anno 2023, we can safely say that these figures are still more than relevant. Ecological packaging for your customers is the message!

• More than 58% of respondents recycle more than before and order less plastic packaging.
• 61% consider environmental impact an important factor in their purchases.
• 93% value a supermarket or retailer with proactive and ecological initiatives more than one that keeps its distance.
• 65% of those surveyed changed brands because they had doubts about packaging methods.

For your customer, wouldn’t it be very convenient if he could sort his entire packaging in 1 go, without having to separate everything yet? That avoids a lot of frustration when throwing away your package. As long as each part of the packaging has the same pure composition, this is perfectly possible. With this, you provide your customers with a frustration-free unboxing. Would you like to know more about this? Then read on in our article on frustration-free packaging.

►2.3 Prepare for the new European packaging rules

In late 2022, the EU launched a new legislative proposal around product packaging: the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR). It lays down new rules that specifically address e-commerce packaging for the first time. Of course, this has a huge impact on the packaging strategy at online retailers…

In a nutshell, the European Commission wants to make every (e-commerce) packaging as circular as possible by 2030. Therefore, there is a strong focus on recycling and reusing. Today’s packaging should easily transform into tomorrow’s packaging. Thanks to the good sorting and recycling properties of mono-materials, you are already well prepared for this challenge today.

Read all about the new European Packaging Act here

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3. Which mono packs are popular in e-commerce?

Virtually every part of an e-commerce shipment has a mono-material variant: from the box you put your product in, to the pallet that the courier service comes to pick up at your door. Result? The end customer can easily sort the entire packaging together afterwards. So mono-packaging comes in many forms and commodities, but which type of mono-packaging takes the crown in e-commerce?

► 3.1 Paper or plastic?

Both materials are popular for shipping e-commerce products, but the current packaging climate still favours mainly paper mono-packaging. And this is for three reasons:

• Research shows that modern consumers find paper a more environmentally friendly and therefore more valuable alternative than plastic
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• Paper and cardboard come from a renewable resource: wood. We can grow and reproduce trees endlessly (and very quickly). The petroleum from which plastic is made, however, has a production time of many thousands of years.
• Wood, paper and cardboard are raw materials that are already very well sorted today. In most European countries, they are the best sorting fractions. Plastic, on the other hand, is not sorted as well or frequently (partly because there are simply so many different varieties of it). In other words, consumers already have a lot of experience in sorting paper correctly as opposed to plastic.

► 3.2 Six steps to mono-packaging with RAJA

In RAJA’s offering, you will find both plastic and paper products for fully mono packaging. In the example below, we will initially limit ourselves to paper solutions only.

• Step 1 – Packaging: for this first step you should use a cardboard box or a paper shipping bag. By the way, useful are shipping boxes with a variable filling height. With these, you always pack compactly because you can easily adjust the box to the size of your product.
• Step 2 – Protect: are you shipping rather fragile products? Then choose paper bubble wrap, a great alternative to traditional plastic bubble wrap.
• Step 3 – Padding: if you have empty space left in your box, fill it with padding paper, or opt for paper padding chips – one of RAJA’s latest innovations.

• Step 4 – Closing: closing a box is best done with solutions such as paper tape or gummed adhesive tape
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• Step 5 – Labelling: finish your parcel with a paper document sleeve, if necessary. Ideal for storing important shipping documents and making them visible.
• Step 6 – Transport: when sending large numbers or large products, you often need pallets. Even then you can opt for paper and cardboard: pallets, stretch film, strapping and more – they all come in a paper version these days.

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4. Are monopacks always the best solution?

For standard e-commerce shipments, mono-materials are often the best solution. However, there are also a few exceptions to that rule… So what exactly is the situation? In some cases, it is a better choice to use composite packaging. So here you combine 2 or more materials/raw materials. The properties of each material contribute to safe shipping. A few examples:

• Cardboard box with integrated foam padding: provides an extra buffer against shocks during transport of exceptionally fragile products.
• Cardboardbox with anti-static plastic fixing film: the best way to protect electronic products during transport.
• Milk cartons, in turn, have a plastic layer in their cardboard holder so that the milk and cardboard do not affect each other.

Either way, for general e-commerce products, mono packs offer a valuable solution. Compared to composite packaging, they significantly reduce environmental impact. For special or very fragile products, specific composite packaging is a better solution. Of course, the customer must continue to receive the product in perfect condition.