What Companies are Doing to Address the Sustainability of Their Product Packaging - Episode 108

As the holiday season descends upon us, the importance of sustainable packaging is never more important. In this episode, Paul discusses not only some of the ways that prominent companies are addressing how their are packaging and shipping their products - but also some of the prominent instances where regulators have cracked down on companies falsely claiming environmental benefits.

Packaging is an important part of a sustainable, circular economy.

For more research:

"Sustainability Trends - Quarterly Outlook: October 2024" - ERM

"A Guide to Sustainable Packaging Solutions" - Green Business Benchmark

"Definition of Sustainable Packaging" - Sustainable Packaging Coalition

"Why we need out-of-the-box thinking on sustainable packaging" - PA Consulting

"Top 4 Sustainable Packaging Trends in 2025" - Lythouse

Follow Paul on LinkedIn.

Transcript

This is Eight Minute Climate Fix – a podcast helping you understand the energy and climate challenge in just a few minutes – I’m your host, Paul Schuster

So I’m recording this episode from my office – which during holiday season doubles as the not-so-secret place where my wife and I stash all of the presents. I am currently surrounded by countless brown amazon boxes, a whole bunch of bubble wrap and boxes INSIDE of boxes holding precious gifts waiting to be opened on Christmas morning.

Packaging … is something I think about a lot during this time of the year. And it’s not surprising that looking at it from a sustainability lens suggests we can do a LOT better.

Eight minutes – it’s how long it takes the sun’s rays to hit earth, or, about how long you’ll enjoy that office holiday party before SOMEONE gets a bit too much into the eggnog … 

Let’s get it on.

Plastic waste is a big environmental problem. And a full 40% of global plastic waste comes from the packaging of our goods. That toy action figure that Timmy just got under the tree has so many single use components – from the twist ties securing the figure’s arms and legs to the cardboard backing - the cellophane film around the box - the bubble wrap used in the plastic shipping mailer used to get it to your house in the first place.

And it’s not JUST about waste, either. Because those oversized boxes that hold just a small makeup product – or those shipping boxes that seem comically big for holding whatever you’ve just ordered from Amazon … The energy costs to produce everything, to SHIP everything … that adds up to.

So, yeah, packaging is an area that gets a lot of attention in sustainability circles – how do we design more efficient packaging? How do we reduce the amount of packaging we use? Or use materials that aren’t going to pollute our environment? How can we reuse or recycle packaging as part of a circular economy?

Let’s start with how companies are looking at using different, alternative *better* materials. A lot of work has been done to remove plastics from the packaging stream and replace that material with biodegradable or recyclable alternatives. Such as paper. Amazon, for instance, has now focused on removing all plastic air pillows from their shipping boxes in favor of paper fillers. And companies like EcoEnclose and Packlane are using other forms of biodegradable materials for not only the shipping boxes, but the void material as well.

Or consider dry molded fiber, which essentially takes hardened paper and allows it to do a lot of what we’ve leaned on plastic to do for us in the past. For instance, we’re now seeing blister packs for medications created from biodegradable fibers rather than plastic – or Bailey’s Irish Cream just announced earlier this year that they would be piloting a dry molded fiber BOTTLE for their famous liqueur! A biodegradable bottle for those holiday tipples!

And then there are companies such as Storopack that are experimenting with bioPLASTICS or PLAs, which are derived from corn and potatoes. Or NotPLA, which is using a seaweed based alternative to plastic. 

Regardless of whether it’s paper, dry molded fiber, bioplastics or some other alternative, biodegradable materials are important. But where they can’t be used - designing, instead, for Reuse or recyclability becomes increasingly critical.

ReUSING packaging is something of a gold ambition for sustainability professionals, because reusing the package means we’re not generating waste. This could be anything from glass bottles that can be refilled or reused … to completely rethinking what a product package may look like to begin with. 

Take Dunnet Bay Distillers in the UK, a producer of gin and vodka. They decided to do away with the traditional glass bottling for their products and, instead, you can now purchase their alcohol in foil pouches that kinda look like big dishwasher soap refills. It may not have the same aesthetic as a Tanqueray gin bottle – but those pouches cut down on size, waste – and can be shipped back to the company for recycling and reuse!

Which highlights another part of the chain that packagers need to consider, because if the packaging is meant to be RECYCLED – it not only has to be made from high quality materials that HAVE a recycling value, but there needs to be a process and a system with which those materials can be recycled. 

Nespresso recognized this as they were releasing their single-use espresso pod system that works a bit like Keurig coffee brewers. The pods were made from aluminum, but just tossing them into your local community’s recycling stream was NOT going to be efficient. Local recyclers don’t have the technology and capabilities to do anything with those old pods – which means that they would eventually end up in a landfill anyway. Instead, Nespresso designed a process where consumers could use special bags to collect old pods and then ship them back to Nespresso to be reprocessed.

So - Designing packaging to be biodegradable, reusable or recyclable is one area of focus – but there’s also the need to reduce oversizing of packaging. Anyone of a certain age remembers how compact discs used to come in long cardboard boxes where two thirds of the box was just empty air … well, we see that SAME excess packaging as a big issue today, as well.

Amazon – if you’re listening – I’m talking to you!

Actually, I probably shouldn’t pick on the big retail giant, as Amazon IS trying to do a lot to reduce oversizing – everything from bundling shipments together to using envelope mailers instead of boxes. The company touts that they have reduced their shipping weight by 43% since 2015, which is outstanding.

On the one hand, simply removing unnecessary space is valuable and such a low hanging fruit – but companies are also moving further to reduce unnecessary material. For instance, Coca-Cola has launched an initiative to replace their current plastic bottles with a version that is significantly thinner – which translates to a 25% lighter package weight and big shipping and energy cost savings as well!

Reduce packaging, Reuse packaging, recycle – or reimagine the materials being used … product packaging is a very front and center part of a company’s interaction with their consumers. Which means that it offers a great way to showcase a commitment toward sustainability … but that also means it has the potential to be abused too.

Greenwashing of packaging is *not* uncommon – and this past year has seen something of a big crackdown on companies claiming sustainable actions.

For instance, the sustainability consulting firm ERM reports that Walmart and Reynolds Consumer Goods reached a settlement in Minnesota over their mislabeling of recyclable bags – which were neither recyclable THEMSELVES NOR made from recycled materials. Or Pepsi which has been sued by New York for misleading the public on their efforts to lean up plastic pollution into the local environment. 

Or take Unilever, which had originally committed to reducing their use of virgin plastics by 50% by 2025 … they quietly shifted that ambition from reducing by a half to reducing by a THIRD – and extended their internal deadline to 2026.

The WAY that companies get products into our hands is obviously a critical part of any sustainability action. From the product package to the shipping options to the bags we use to take groceries home from the store … we generate a LOT of waste in packaging. Much of that is in single use plastics that we *have* to get a handle on. And while there are a lot of companies taking good steps toward minimizing their impact … it's also incumbent upon consumers, regulators and policy makers to ensure that companies are really living up to their promises and not just waving a green wand over their actions.

And, for what its worth this holiday season, take a look at your own habits and see if there is a shipping bundle or two that you might be able to combine to cut down on costs and boxes … Happy Sustainable Holidays, all!

I’m Paul Schuster – and this has been your eight minutes.