Biofore Magazine 2020

24

D elivery services and e-com- merce have seen a jump in demand as more people than ever are working, learning and socialising fromhome. This in- crease in online shopping has a downside, however – a corresponding rise in waste. These interrelated trends have shone a spotlight on the role of packaging. How a product looks – and ships – plays an essen- tial role in the decision to buy an item, the process by which it arrives at a home and the way it eventually leaves. With the at- homeeconomy likely tocontinueat least in the near future, increasing the sustainabil- ity of packaging will be key to reducing the carbon footprint of e-commerce. What IS the box? To understand how packaging can be made more sustainable, it’s important to examine the primary concerns that go into deciding what sort of packaging to use. The needs of the product and the type of retail channel are the starting point. “Conventional characteristics like price, aesthetics, and performance are always taken into consideration,” says Adam Gendell , Associate Director at the SustainablePackagingCoalition. “Packag- ing can serve to protect and preserve the product, market the product, communi- cate health and safety information about the product, and for certain products, can serve to provide theft prevention, child safety, dosed dispensing andmore.” The main challenge is designing pack- aging that works for both bricks-and- mortar retail and e-commerce. Gendell believes that this balance has flipped and that designing packaging for e-commerce

is starting to take precedence over pack- aging that works on store shelves. This could be good news for many categories of products since e-commerce eliminates the need for packaging to provide market- ing, which means that packaging can be stripped down to its core function of con- taining and protecting the product during transportation. However, Luc Speisser , Group Chief Innovation Officer at Landor and FITCH Global, notes that packaging is “more than just casing to allowfor easy transportation and storage of products.” The “unboxing” trend (exactly what it sounds like: people opening boxes and narrating their ac- tions) demonstrates that it’s also an im- portant brand touchpoint. Gendell agrees that every packaging material can be advantageous or disad- vantageous depending on the package de- sign, the product being packaged, the type of retail channel and other factors. “We often say there’s no such thing as a good or bad material - only good or bad designs. Formany packaging applications, paper-based packaging can be advanta- geous, and for others, plastic-based pack- aging can be best. This is true for all mate- rials, including glass, steel, aluminiumand more. Depending on the package design, trade-offs can include carbon footprint, packaging weight, recyclability, toxicity – any packaging material can introduce a trade-off in any performance, aesthetic, economic, or environmental attribute,” Gendell explains. More than just material For Speisser, packaging choices are more than paper or plastic. Increasingly, pack-

The way forward for sustainability in the packaging industry will boil down to technology, collective intelligence and a real commitment.