What is sustainable packaging? It is a type of environment-friendly packaging used to pack products to store and deliver. Sustainable packaging aims to reduce the amount of material that goes into packing a product. It also ensures that the material is compostable and reusable.
While some traditional packaging options may be cheaper and more convenient than sustainable packaging, they need to play a better role in displaying your brand's image. Using environment-friendly materials shows a positive image of your brand, telling your audience you care about the environment and upcoming generations.
If you're new to this idea, read along to learn the importance and top sustainable packaging ideas for your products.
Importance of Sustainable Packaging
If sustainable packaging can be inconvenient for you, why should you use it? Well, it may cost slightly more than traditional packaging materials, but it helps build brand credibility and a positive image of your company in the market. Moreover, it's better for the environment and natural resources, which are essential to keep up with the quality of our and the upcoming generation's lives.
1. Many People Demand Sustainable Packaging
According to research, 42% of UK and US consumers look for products that utilize sustainable substances.
One of the significant advantages of sustainable packaging is an expansion of your consumer base. Sustainability trends are at their peak right now. When people see that you care about the environment and are making this world a better living place, they appreciate your business and support you by purchasing from you.
When you offer sustainable packaging, it builds a responsible image of your brand, which helps the consumers trust you. If consumers trust your business, they will likely refer your products or services to those they know, helping you expand your client base. Moreover, consumers' trust in a company leads them to become loyal customers.
2. Low Shipping Cost
The smaller and lighter the package, the less it will cost to ship. You pack your products in a large box. If they can fit in a smaller box, do it. This will save you a lot of money when using third-party shipping services. Many shipping companies charge extra because of the parcel’s weight and size.
Sustainable Packaging Ideas
Image taken from Strikingly’s user’s site
There are numerous ways to make your packaging sustainable such as using plant-based or reusable materials. Let's take a deeper dive into the top sustainable packaging ideas.
1. Plant-based Packaging
One of the top sustainable packaging strategies is using plant-based packaging. As the name suggests, plant-based packaging is made out of biological resources. Different kinds of plants are used to make packaging materials for different items depending on their requirements. For instance, food products require packaging that can protect them without disturbing their flavor. Bioplastic is a great packaging option if you run a food business. Bioplastic is made from cornstarch and sugar cane's sugars.
Packaging made out of mushrooms or cornstarch is best suited to pack heavy items. You can research and experiment with different plant-based packaging to determine which one fulfills your products' requirements.
2. Plantable Packaging
Plantable packaging can be a great option if you need it for small and lightweight products such as cosmetics, jewelry, etc.
Plantable packaging is made out of post-consumer materials embedded with seeds. Plantable packaging can encourage people to plant what they like and make better choices. It can also attract plant enthusiasts to your business, converting them into loyal customers.
3. Corrugated Bubble Wrap
Suppose you sell fragile products and use bubble wrap to protect your items while shipping. Try switching to corrugated bubble wrap. It is made out of recycled cardboard, which is naturally biodegradable.
4. Organic Ecological Textiles
Organic, ecological textile packaging is durable, reduces waste in your supply chain, and gives more value to your customer. For example, you sell your products in a cloth bag. This will allow your customers to reuse your bag, encouraging them to minimize the use of plastic bags.
Moreover, organic, ecological textile packaging takes less time to degrade plastic. For example, it takes around two weeks for a linen bag to decompose. But it takes 10000 years for a plastic bag to break down into microplastic.
You can use hemp tape to secure stuff together, cotton wool to cushion (alternative for bubble wrap), and cotton linen to make cloth bags.
5. Air Pillows Made from Recycled Materials
Air pillows made from post-consumer content can be a great eco-friendly alternative to styrofoam and bubble wrap. To prevent fragile material from breaking, you can fill empty spaces in your boxes with nature-friendly inflatable air pillows.
When buying inflatable air pillows, ask the seller if they're made from recycled content and are biodegradable.
How to Make Your Sustainable Packaging Idea a Success?
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It can be hard to offer sustainable packaging for all your products simultaneously. You may have previous of plastic bags and bubble wraps and aren't aware of the best places to buy sustainable packaging.
Rather than replacing everything at once, go for one packaging at one time because this will require extensive research. You will have to see what material your products require and try different packaging to determine what fits best.
Once you know what packaging meets the needs of your product, order samples, then test if it is compatible with your products (displays your products nicely, how well they fit into it), durability, and the net weight. Next, adjust your prices. Sustainable packaging may cost you a bit more than traditional packaging. Therefore you need to adjust your products' prices accordingly.
Top 5 Brands that Use Sustainable Packaging
Numerous brands have joined the sustainable packaging trends. They are coming up with exciting ways of making their packaging eco-friendly. Here are some of those brands.
1. Samsung
You can reuse Samsung packaging boxes by turning them into several things, such as a cat's house. Here's what you can turn a QLED TV's packaging box into:
- Magazine rack.
- TV console
- Cat house
- Desk shelf
- Phone Stand
- Bookshelf
Image taken from Samsung Newsroom
2. JUST Water
Plastic water bottles are one of the significant constituents of materials that harm the environment. JUST Water uses cardboard boxes and aluminum bottles to sell its water. These materials don't have as much negative impact on the environment as plastic water bottles.
3. Pangea
Pangea sells lip, body, and face care products. They aim to make the beauty industry sustainable. And to achieve that goal, Pangea is the first brand to use Sugarcane bio-resin in their packaging. Sugarcane bio-resin is compostable, and reusable. It also decreases your carbon footprint.
4. Plaine
Plaine promotes sustainability by selling its bathroom products (shampoo, facewash, etc.) in aluminum bottles instead of plastic bottles. It also uses recyclable and biodegradable cardboard boxes for packaging.
Plaine has also launched the concept of refillable bathroom product bottles. When you run out of the product, you can send back the bottle to the company to get it refilled, helping you cut down on waste.
4. Lush
Lush is a cosmetics company that sells shampoos, soap, and other bathing products. Lush don't use packaging where it isn't needed. And where the packaging seems necessary, 90% is made of compostable and reusable materials. Lush says that they aim to make their packaging 100% sustainable in the future.
Launch Your Sustainable Packaging Idea Online
Image taken from Strikingly
You need to educate your target audience about your sustainable packaging trends. One way to spread information about your brand is through your website. A website represents your brand and lets consumers get the information they need about your products. If your brand doesn't have a website, you can build one using Strikingly. We are a website builder that lets you create a mobile-responsive website in just a few minutes without costing a thousand dollars.
Strikingly's wide range of editable site templates can be modified in the intuitive site editor and published within a few minutes. Moreover, you can build an online store with Strikingly to sell and showcase your products to a broader range of audiences.
Here are a few reasons why you should use Strikingly to build an online store:
- Ability to showcase and sell more than 500 products.
- Accept payments from multiple methods and in 135 different currencies.
- Options for adding a product filter and categorizing your items. This enhances the user experience of your site.
- Analytics to keep an eye on your store's performance.
- Coupons for returning consumers. Great for building a loyal consumer base.
- Custom checkout forms.
- You can show consumer reviews to gain new visitors' trust.
Image taken from Strikingly’s user’s website
Strikingly allows you to build unlimited free websites. Still, you can purchase a premium plan (starting from $12 a month) to access additional features.
That was all you needed to know about sustainable packaging before switching to it. Lastly, sustainable packaging isn't only advantageous for businesses and benefits other people, animals, and upcoming generations. Our sustainable choices today can save this world from climate disasters in the future.
