7 tips for green packaging
4min read
17/03/2023
Surveys show that a majority of consumers want to cut out plastic packaging in favour of more environmentally friendly solutions, even if it means increasing the price of the product. To listen to your customers and protect your brand, it’s important to choose packaging solutions that are as environmentally friendly as possible. This will pay off in the form of more loyal customers. To help you out, here are 7 green packaging tips that we hope will inspire you to make some good choices for the environment. These solutions also contribute to good logistics.
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Reusable and recyclable packaging
Our first tip is to ensure that your packaging can be used multiple times, either by your company or by your customer. This will reduce the environmental footprint of the packaging. Reusable packaging is manufactured with the idea that the packaging should be able to withstand being transported multiple times while protecting the products inside each time.
Examples of reusable packaging are boxes with a double adhesive strip for easy return, or recycled e-commerce bags with a double adhesive strip. These can be easily used by the consumer if one or more of the products need to be returned.
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Packaging with less material
Reducing the volumetric weight of your packs is probably the easiest way to pack your products in the most environmentally friendly way possible, and you will save costs at the same time.
By reducing the volumetric weight, you will have less empty space in your packs, allowing you to fit more packs on your vehicle. Fewer lorries will have to drive, resulting in lower shipping costs.
To learn more about volume weight, read this previous blog post.
You can work with volume weight on all types of packaging by customising the packaging to the size, weight and protection needs of the products you are shipping.
A good tip is to test out variable height boxes. The principle is simple: The boxes are equipped with grooves in the lid so you can easily fold down the lid to fit the height of the contents.
See RAJA’s variable height boxes here.
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Packaging that goes straight into the mailbox
How about choosing packaging that can be delivered straight to your customer’s mailbox? This makes transport and distribution more efficient, which is good for the environment. In addition, this packaging also creates a good customer experience, as your customer doesn’t have to go to a collection point to pick up the parcel.
There are special postal boxes that are designed to fit in standard mailboxes.
See RAJA’s range of post boxes here.
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Packaging made from environmentally friendly materials
There has been a lot of innovation in green packaging in recent years and there are now more packaging products made from 100% bio-based materials. These are materials that are fully biodegradable, such as sugar cane or maize starch.
An example of this type of packaging is eco-friendly packaging chips made from maize starch.
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Packaging in mono-materials
Mono-material means that the packaging is made from a single material, making it much easier to recycle.
Single-material packaging can be made from different materials: Plastic, glass, wood, paper or corrugated cardboard. For example, many online retailers choose to use padded paper envelopes, where the lining inside the envelope is made of shock-absorbing paper with a honeycomb structure. These can replace bubble envelopes, where the bubble wrap inside must be separated from the paper envelope before recycling.
Read also our previous blog post on mono-materials.
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Packaging that can be reused for recycling
As you know, some of the products sold by online shops are returned by customers, which means additional transport. It is important that the return packaging has as little environmental impact as possible, and reusable packaging ensures this.
Returnable packaging is designed to be strong enough to withstand multiple shipments and minimise the need for other packaging for the return. The boxes or e-commerce bags used are often equipped with a double adhesive strip. This makes it easy for customers to use the same packaging for the return.
See RAJA’s double glue strip boxes and double glue strip e-commerce bags here.
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Compostable packaging
One type of packaging that is expected to become increasingly popular is packaging that can be industrially composted. This is already well established in several countries. This will be an alternative to packaging that can be reused and/or recycled.
In Norway, there is currently little industrial composting, but it is a trend worth knowing about and monitoring in the future.
Will you adopt any of these tips for a more environmentally responsible packaging strategy?
Feel free to contact RAJA for advice and guidance on how to make the best possible environmental choices.
