Sustainable trends and packaging

Defining what your product looks like

Packaging is one of the primary components of a product, defining its marketing and sales strategy. With sustainability top of mind for many manufacturers lately, how does sustainability translate into packaging developments that fulfil current consumer demands? This article will dwell on three important trends that are defining packaging, how it is made and its design. 

1. Circular packaging

In view of the environmental effects of pollution and its related climate change more and more governments and companies aim for a circular economy. 

In terms of packaging, this means looking beyond, for example, recycling plastic bottles. It calls for reusing all components of packaging materials. It also requires the discouragement or banning of plastic bags in stores, as is the case in the EU countries. But, upgrading of packaging materials is another option. For instance, turning a bamboo basket into a flower pot. 

This type of packaging opens a vast array of sustainable options, where packaging is used to create another or accompanying product. Plantable paper containing flower seeds, is the ultimate form of circularity!

As for online sales channels: research shows that consumers are often annoyed by the vast amount of materials that are used for packaging online purchases. It is essential that players in this fast-growing market reconsider packaging options and provide sustainable solutions. 

2. Clean the oceans

Unfortunately, nowadays, the images of polluted oceans and beaches are familiar to us all. Much of this pollution is caused by packaging. Recycling of products, such as PET bottles, is proving to be less effective than hoped. Clothes made out of recycled PET bottles shed small plastic particles into the environment and into our oceans, where they have become part of the so-called ‘plastic soup’. Moreover, the particles bind with coral reefs and when consumed by fish even end up in the human food chain. 

Of late, manufacturers have become more open to using bio-degradable products such as paper, hemp, starch and cellulose. They prefer to use these sustainable materials rather than the more accessible, cheaper and previously preferred alternative: plastic. 

3. The youth is the future

It has been said many times before, but it certainly still holds true: our youth is the future. Up till now that youth has proven to be more environmentally conscious than previous generations. For manu-facturers to reach the youngest generation of consumers, it is essential they are knowledgeable of what youth finds attractive when it comes to the look of product packaging.

What to watch out for

So, what can you be doing packaging-wise? More is less. Packaging should have less text, bigger letters and clear contrasts. An overkill of information makes today’s consumer suspicious. The trend is to keep things simple and distinct. Understandable texts provide consumers – who want to be able to check what they are purchasing – clear information. Product transparency can be reflected in translucent packaging materials: what you see is what you get. Simultaneously, contemporary, unique and vintage-looking designs are hot. As is packaging that contributes to longer shelf life. But, the overriding challenge for manufacturers is to use packaging that helps make our world a little cleaner and greener.