Consumer shopping is increasingly moving online, and at the same time, there’s an escalating conversation about why it is important to fight climate change. Fortunately, innovations in packaging can provide decent alternatives to plastics and other materials that have a high environmental impact for businesses that want to reduce their eco-footprint.

Here are 5 Tips To Achieve Greener Packaging in 2022

1. Evaluate Your Packaging Practices

The first thing you should do is assess just how much packaging you truly need to ship products securely. Excessive packaging is not only an annoyance for the consumer but also sends the wrong message about sustainability.

From there, you need to determine just how environmentally friendly the materials that you are using for packaging actually are. To be regarded as sustainable, packaging needs to meet certain criteria, which include, but isn’t limited to:

–    Physically designed to optimize both energy and materials

–    Being cleanly sourced and manufactured

–    Being safe, beneficial, and healthy to both people and communities throughout its lifecycle

–    Optimized to use recycled and renewable materials

If you discover that your current packaging practices are not up to par, you should take steps to correct the course. You can find high quality sleeve packaging that is environmentally friendly.

2. Use Materials That Give Plastics a Second Life

Plastic is one of the biggest contributors to pollution, both in landfills and in our oceans. With over 380 million tons of plastic produced each year, saying that there’s a lot of plastic in the world would be an understatement.

With this much plastic in circulation, there’s an opportunity to give plastic a new lease of life. Products such as recycled mailers provide an affordable and eco-conscious option for retailers to ship and customers to recycle or reuse items wherever soft plastics are accepted.

3. Leverage Corn Plastics as an Alternative Material for Packaging

Companies that want to lower their environmental footprint in e-commerce need to have a wide selection of alternative packaging options to suit the shipping needs of their products in an environmentally-friendly way.

Corn plastics, which are a specific type of bioplastics, provide numerous benefits. Notable advantages include being made from a renewable source, being cost-effective, emitting fewer greenhouse gasses, and are also biodegradable.

While the material has its drawbacks, this alternative packaging option is considered less damaging to the environment compared to traditional plastics.

Compostable mailers are one such option, which is ideal for soft items like clothing or even items that aren’t fragile. Compostable mailers function in a similar way to recycled plastic mailers, but their disposal differs. While recycled plastic mailers can be recycled again, packaging made from corn plastic can be composted.

Use Compostable and Recyclable Paper Packaging

While soft plastic bags are used for shipping many items, there will always be a need for cardboard.

You can recycle cardboard numerous times, after which it is compostable, and many recycled paper products can be transformed into Kraft paper mailers or even environmentally-friendly packaging tape once their lifecycle ends.

Paper products that have been recycled severally and are compostable should also meet some criteria to be truly environmentally friendly. Criteria such as ensuring that the paper is acid-free and not treated using harmful chemicals such as sulfur and lignin will ensure that the paper is safely compostable.

4. Don’t Forget About Packaging Fillers

Styrofoam inserts and peanuts are a wasteful nuisance that consumers have to dispose of. While these options are definitely not eco-friendly, they have plenty of alternatives.

Starch-based packing peanuts are one such example. They might look and function the same as those made of Styrofoam, the key difference is that they are nontoxic and made out of crop-based sources. Starch peanuts dissolve in water without leaving any waste.

Mushroom packaging is another viable packaging filler alternative. A mushroom’s root system, which is known as mycelium, is grown, harvested, and baked into a mold that forms protective cushioning inside the boxes.

Mushroom packaging is one of the most eco-friendly and sustainable alternative packaging options that can be used as a replacement for Styrofoam, bubble wrap, and other plastic fillers.

5. Make Sure That Your Packaging is Labeled Clearly and Sourced Sustainably 

When you send out environmentally-friendly packages, it is important not to forget to state clearly how to best dispose of or reuse the packaging materials.

Consumers are usually unsure how they should recycle packaging materials since incorrect disposal leads to unnecessary use of landfills or the rejection of recycling due to contamination.

Whether the packaging material used is compostable, recyclable, or reusable, clear labeling can help the customer do the right thing after receiving their shipment.