It’s no secret that today’s consumers are more aware of the purchases they’re making and the type of environmental impact they have. Have your customers been asking for more sustainable solutions from your business? Eco-friendly packaging might be the answer.
Even if you haven’t heard requests for your business to “go green”, the benefits that come with utilizing eco-friendly packaging are worth considering. If you’re currently packing your products in corrugated boxes you’re already part of the way there, but you can still do more. Paper is the most recycled material in the world and corrugated packaging is a classic example of what you can recycle to give your business a sustainability boost.
With corrugated packaging you can even take it one step further by using boxes that are produced out of 100% recycled linerboard. All of this combined with the fact that corrugated is made out of a renewable resource shows that if you want to make the jump to more eco-friendly packaging, looking into corrugated is the way to go.
Eco-Friendly Packaging Can Be the Difference Between You and Your Competition
In this day and age, it’s important to consider how you can be a more environmentally conscious business. If you’re shipping out products constantly, think about the impact all your packaging materials have. It’s not just about recycling, either. From the transportation of the packaging to your facility and to your customers, to the way that it’s made, almost every step of the process has some effect on the environment. Using eco-friendly packaging can help reduce the negative impact on our planet while helping to increase the positive.
For example, let’s look at transportation. The farther your packaging has to travel, the bigger its carbon footprint will be. While you can’t necessarily reduce emissions when your product is being shipped to customers, you can make a difference when your packaging is being shipped to your facility. How? Order your packaging materials locally! By using a local corrugated packaging supplier that is close to your business you can significantly cut down on the emissions from trucks and help make your eco-friendly packaging even more sustainable.
Another way to boost your sustainability is to look at how your packaging is made. Try and find packaging suppliers that build their boxes out of recycled materials. Many packaging suppliers are moving towards this process in order to help the environment.
Once you’ve found a great corrugated packaging supplier, there’s several steps your business can take to be more eco-friendly as well. To start, rethink the way that you package your products. A more efficiently packed box is a lighter box, which means less expensive shipping costs for your business. Efficient packing can also cut down on the number of boxes you use resulting in more money in your pocket.
When designing your packaging, don’t feel like you have to have a ton of extra material inside the box to keep your product safe. Pack smarter with custom corrugated packaging. that is designed specially for your product. Getting rid of unnecessary internal packaging is a quick and easy way to eliminate waste and save material.
You can also reuse your own packaging! Jump start the cycle by saving your gently used boxes and reusing them for future shipments. Reusing boxes will slowly start to decrease the amount you’re spending on new boxes, which saves energy and raw materials that go into making new packaging. However, we’d recommend keeping this to only one or two reuses — a worn out box is a quick path to damaged products.
As much as it pains us to say this — the reality is, in the end most of your packaging is going to end up getting thrown out. If you’re using eco-friendly packaging materials, it’s easier to encourage your customers to put your packaging back into the cycle instead of the trash. And don’t be afraid to put a message on your packaging asking your customers to recycle your boxes! Seeing this will increase the amount of boxes that are tossed into the recycling bin instead of the dumpster, and it’ll help foster a better relationship with your customers and the environment.
Here’s the thing, if you think that no one is really going to notice whether you’re using sustainable packaging or not — think again. One-third of consumers specifically choose to purchase from a brand that they believe is doing environmental good.
If you start using eco-friendly packaging, your customers will take notice, and it’s going to make a better impression on new and existing customers. Want to put your business a step ahead of your competition? This is the way to do it. Whether it’s the box you ship your products in, or the retail package that is displayed on the shelf, small things add up over time, and the switch to eco-friendly packaging can be the determining factor that makes a consumer choose your product over your competitors’.
