What does sustainability really mean? In the context of business, it’s a way of operating that won’t impede future generations. For example, conserving natural resources so that future generations can access them as we do.
Many companies claim to be eco-friendly and sustainable—even if the opposite is true. When companies mislead others about the impact of their operations on the environment it’s a practice known as greenwashing.
Sustainable packaging is when companies use eco-friendly materials combined with compact and lightweight designs to store and ship products. At SupremeX, we have an environmental policy that guides everything we do.
Below, we’ll take a closer look at why sustainable packaging design is important, and the different types of eco-friendly materials:
Why Is Sustainable Packaging Important?
Since the rise of e-commerce and Amazon, businesses have had to adapt to a changing landscape. Products get shipped all around the world, which means companies need reliable and safe packaging materials.
But consumers are increasingly aware of how unsustainable practices impact the planet. After all, we all live here—the natural environment affects everyone. From concerns about plastic waste to the impacts of deforestation, it’s becoming more important for businesses to operate sustainably.
Sustainable packaging helps us conserve natural resources, produce less waste, and lighten our carbon footprint.
Types of Green Packaging
How can we make the packaging industry more sustainable? It starts with better design and the materials we use. We’ve listed a few examples of sustainable packaging materials below:
Right Sized:
The most practical place to start a journey towards more sustainable packaging is designing to the right size. The goal here is to use the least amount of material to accomplish the task at hand.
Recyclable packaging
By now, there’s no doubt you’re familiar with recycling. It’s the process of breaking down waste materials so they can be used to manufacture new products, instead of putting them in a landfill.
With packaging materials, recycling comes into play in two ways:
- Recyclable materials. Reusable packaging means those materials can be recycled to create another packaging solution.
- Packaging made from recycled materials. After something is recycled, what happens to it? It can be turned into recycled paper or packaging material. Sustainable product packaging is made almost entirely of recycled materials—which means no new natural resources were used to create the package.
Lightweighting:
Lightweighting is the key idea of choosing the lightest possible material to get the job done. Materials come in different weights and thicknesses so choosing the lightest material that is appropriate for each situation can have a significant impact on the amount of material and therefore energy consumed to create the materials.
Compostable packaging (biodegradable)
Recycling is far better than sending waste to a landfill, there’s no doubt about that. But it also consumes energy to recycle products. And sometimes, those recycled materials never get used.
What if you could skip that step altogether? That’s the idea behind compostable materials, which are designed to break down naturally in their life cycle.
Sustainable sourcing
When a package arrives at your doorstep, do you ever wonder how it got there?
We aren’t referring to the shipping process, but the resources that were used to create that package. Cardboard and paper are made from trees, which can lead to another problem: Deforestation. That’s why it’s crucial to source pulp and lumber from sustainable forests.
At SupremeX, we source and provide our customers with both Forest Stewardship Council Certified and Sustainable Forestry Initiative Certified materials. Both programs ensure that the materials are coming from sustainably operated forests and other sources.
Our Commitment to Eco-Friendly Packaging
We’re always striving to make our business more sustainable and lessen our carbon footprint year after year. Our line-up of eco-friendly packaging products is part of our initiative to be a sustainable packaging company.
As part of our Enviro-logiX™ Program, you can select products with the following features:
- Biodegradable materials
- Contains from 25% to 100% recycled content
- Environmentally friendly
- Fully recyclable within existing recycling streams
- 100% Curbside Recyclable
- Made from Recycled materials
Our environmental policy reflects our commitment to being a sustainable packaging manufacturer. To learn more about our eco-friendly packaging options, contact SupremeX today!
