With environmental awareness growing worldwide, brands across all industries feel mounting pressure to adopt eco-friendly packaging. Various innovations now allow companies to ship products sustainably without sacrificing performance or presentation.
Eco-conscious consumers increasingly seek out products packaged in renewable materials like responsibly sourced paper and plant fibers rather than finite resources like plastic. In response to environmental concerns, brands like FROMM Packaging in Sydney are engineering recyclable and renewable packaging solutions.
Cardboard, paper, and pulp packaging sourced from forests with replanting programs offer sturdy, customizable alternatives to Styrofoam or bubble wrap. Expect increasing use of recycled paper and plant-based packaging as renewable options improve. Learn about the most influential sustainability trends transforming packaging design and materials.
Biodegradable Plastics
While plastics are the epitome of lasting packaging, new biodegradable plastic formulations offer sustainable options that fully decompose naturally over time without harming the environment.
Bio-based plastics derived from corn, potatoes, or other organic materials can safely compost or even dissolve in water after use. Oxo-biodegradable additives accelerate plastic decomposition. As technology progresses, look for wider bioplastic adoption.
Active and Intelligent Packaging
Smart packaging innovations do more than just contain products. Active and intelligent packaging provides enhanced protection, freshness, monitoring, and safety throughout distribution.
Oxygen scavengers and antimicrobials added to packaging actively maintain product shelf life and eliminate bacteria growth. RFID and sensor technologies enable package monitoring and tracking. Expect exponential innovation in packaging to play an active role.
Customized Display Packaging
While customization may seem counter to sustainability, customized display packaging that doubles as a merchandising solution reduces material waste significantly. Brands increasingly turn to customized packaging to do double duty.
Instead of elaborate cardboard displays and plastic clamshells, products get packaged in customized paperboard boxes and mailers, allowing windowed displays at retail. The recyclable packaging serves both transit protection and merchandising functions sustainably.
Minimal and Lightweight Materials
Brands minimize environmental impact by engineering packaging to use the least amount of material possible while protecting its contents. Lightweighting reduces waste dramatically.
Thinner plastic and film are utilized when permissible. Custom-molded or form-fitting shapes for products match required dimensions versus defaulting to oversized boxes. Every gram eliminated makes a planetary difference at scale.
Circularity and Recyclability
To close the loop, more packaging gets produced entirely of materials easily recycled back into new packaging after use. This cradle-to-cradle lifecycle limits waste.
Most paper and cardboard packs are inherently recyclable. Flexible plastics and films also work toward recyclability through improved sorting and processing technologies that allow reuse in new forms. Circularity principles will shape future packaging.
Renewable Energy and Carbon Reduction
Alongside renewable materials, brands increasingly power packaging facilities using renewable energy sources like wind and solar to achieve carbon neutrality.
Many leading brands and suppliers plan to fully offset packaging carbon emissions by supporting reforestation and renewable energy projects. Achieving net zero emissions enters packaging’s sustainability equation.
Conclusion
As consumer and regulatory pressure accelerates, brands urgently make packaging sustainability integral to design and production decisions. From recyclable and reduced materials to supply chain improvements and renewable energy, the most prominent packaging trends focus on minimizing environmental impact through innovation. The packaging changes underway promise a cleaner, greener future.
