Worldwide the packaging industry is valued at close to $420-billion and employs more than five million people globally according to the Sustainable packaging coalition. That makes product packaging a big deal! Considering everything in our society is packaged, sustainable packaging is now a necessity. 

With the huge increase in global consumer goods consumption comes a large increase in packaging waste. This has created stress in community landfills around the globe making it more incumbent on companies to use biodegradable as well as recycled materials as much as possible. Sustainable packaging should be embraced, not only for marketing leverage, but because it's the right thing to do.

With a finite amount of nonrenewable natural resources, ever-rising energy costs and rapidly filling landfills, sustainable packaging is becoming an increasing necessity. Many CPG companies and retailers are embracing eco-friendly packaging as never before.
Wal-Mart is working to its mantra "The 7 Rs of Packaging - remove, reduce, recycle, renew, revenue, and read" with its supplier partners. They have instituted a Sustainable Packaging Scorecard. The retail giant expects its 60,000 suppliers to fill in substantial information concerning their packaging. This information is then shared so that individual suppliers can see how they "stack up" against all of Wal-Mart's other suppliers.

This kind of initiative has an understandably large ripple effect throughout the CPG industry. It also provides a catalyst that spurs many companies to take action. The point is to have a "win-win" proposition: save on energy, natural resources, and environmental waste, while doing it profitably. With some smart thinking and planning, these measures can have a positive impact on corporate revenue streams.

For many decades, products and packaging have both been designed in a "cradle to grave" system; that is, they have ended up in landfills at the end of their useful life cycle. Companies are now reorienting their product and packaging development into the "cradle to cradle" system. Products and packaging created in this manner feature materials that are perpetually circulated and reused in what industry experts refer to as "closed loops." This extracts maximum value from materials already in use without ever ending up in landfills, damaging ecosystems.

Manufacturers can institute some, if not all, of these environmentally friendly packaging solutions for their products:

• Cut down on excess product packaging. By creating packaging that is the right size for products, and not adding any extraneous material inside of packaging, there are huge savings in costs and waste.
• Use materials from renewable resources sourced from well-managed eco-systems.
• Use recycled materials to reduce the environmental impact of virgin materials that must be manufactured. Procter & Gamble, Kraft Foods, and FedEx all use 100% recycled paperboard.
• Use non-toxic, lead-free plastic packaging.
• Use biodegradable materials and soy or water-based inks that will not do damage to the environment.
• Purchase packaging materials that have been made with as little energy consumption as possible and that have emitted the fewest greenhouse gases in manufacture.
• Use packaging that has shifted away from petro-based chemicals to corn and potato starch components in biodegradable resins. These starches actually compost when degraded.
• Use biodegradable cornstarch peanuts as packing material in cartons rather than foam peanuts or packing pellets made from starch-based cereal grains made from Clextral.
• Find out about cradle-to-cradle product and packaging components and use them whenever possible.

By consciously choosing products that are packaged in recycled or renewable materials, consumers not only support the companies that are eco-conscious, but also do their part to lessen energy use, the stripping of our precious natural resources and environmental waste.

Sourced: Ted Mininni is president of Design Force, Inc., a metro New York consultancy that specialises in brand identity and package design for the food & beverage and toy & entertainment industries.