CIRCULAR ECONOMY AND PACKAGING INDUSTRY

 #Circular Economy The official researches on Circular Economy were first raised during 2011-2013 by Ellen MacArthur Foundation in their serial reports, named “Towards the Circular Economy” and were later promoted by Mckinsey &Company. 

In 2018, the World Economic Forum, World Resources Institute, Philips, Ellen MacArthur Foundation, United Nations Environment Programme, and over 40 other partners launched the Platform for Accelerating the Circular Economy (PACE). 

Since then, Circular Economy has become a new goal for sustainable business. So, what do we know about this new concept and its relation with Packaging Industry.

What is Circular Economy?

There are more than 100 definitions of this term used by foundations, organizations, journals and researchers… To briefly understand the meaning of Circular Economy, we can watch a short video from Ellen MacArthur Foundation below:

Link: https://youtu.be/zCRKvDyyHmI 

In general, we can understand that Circular Economy helps to create close loops for products, where the productions use the least materials and the disposals can be maximumly recycled or be done with least harm. Renewable energy is used to make sure the least negative effect to environment. In general, it is also based on the concept of 3-R: Reduce – Reuse – Recycle. However, among that, systematic thinking is vital to link the whole economy of different industries and the supply chain of products.

Circular Economy concept in Packaging industry

According to French Packaging Council, in packaging sector, Circular Economy model handles all stages of a product's lifecycle, including: packaging design, production, distribution and use, but also recovery.

• Saving resources (materials, water, energy) must be involved, mostly through: 

• Conceiving the product or packaging combination in an eco-friendly way

• Using the resources parsimoniously 

• Reusing packaging, especially on a business-to-business basis

• Preventing packaging waste

• Preventing product waste when packing

• Preventing waste by improving recyclability of products and packaging

• Reusing materials to optimize material flow

• Changing people's behaviour to improve packaging.

European Directive 94/62/EC5 on Packaging and Packaging waste have set the target for waste recycling program in EU zone: 

“By 31 December 2030, at least 70% of packaging must be recycled. This includes:

• 55% of plastic

• 30% of wood

• 80% of ferrous metals

• 60% of aluminium

• 75% of glass and

• 85% of paper and cardboard.”

… by setting up the Waste Framework Directive focusing on Producers’ responsibility and building packaging recovery systems in EU’s member states.

The concept of Circular Economy is set very clear in Packaging industry when creating a loop for kinds of packaging, from productions from recycled material and disposal for recycling. The waste collection system and recycling firms must be convenient and arranged to save the energy for transportation.

References:

Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Towards the Circular Economy: Economic and Business Rationale for an Accelerated Transition , 2013 

Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Towards the Circular Economy: an economic and business rationale for an accelerated transition, 2012

French Packaging Council (Conseil National De L’emballage), Packaging & Circular Economy, A case study of the circular economy model, 2014.

European Directive 94/62/EC5 on Packaging and Packaging waste, retrieved on 1 September 2020.

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TOP 3 NEW CHANNELS FOR ENTERPRISES TO COMMUNICATE THEIR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Dealing with the significant change of climate, living conditions and environments in general, consumers nowadays pay more attentions to sustainability and corporation’s commitments for their social responsibility. So how could your enterprises convey a sustainable image to consumers? Following are 3 effective channels which help your buyers recognize you as one of the “responsible” brands among other competitors.

1. Through eco-packaging to convey social responsibility

Choosing the recycled and recyclable material for your packaging is a good way to send an indirect message to your customer that you are following a sustainable practice for your products. Indeed, according to a research from The Bucharest University of Economic and Bucharest Dimitrie Cantemir Christian University, Romanian consumers prefer the packaging of paper, glass, and cardboard; among them 52.9% shoppers opt for products with packaging from cardboard. It is a trend to replace your plastic packaging by a cardboard packaging, such as our corrugated boxes or Eco-Envelope…. Eco-friendly consumers will highly appreciate the brands showing their social responsibility through green packaging.

2. Payback to consumers for recycling items – a new model of social responsibility.

This used to be a creative marketing and social responsibility campaign from TerraCycle - an innovative recycling company. Before turning into a recycling business, in its early day between 2004 and 2006, TerraCycle started the business with selling liquified fertilizer from worm poop packed in plastic bottle. Since the new bottles were too expensive for them, they started to buy back the used one at $0.02 for each plastic pouch and fill the liquified fertilizer into it to send to their buyers. 

Later, with Recycling Brigade Program, they were successful to engage their customers into other recycling activities by creating the local recycling posts along USA. It is a significant successful example of a social enterprise. 

3. Publishing your sustainability plan on website and social networks

This would be seen by consumers as your official commitment to sustainability by announcing that you are actively participating into an eco-friendly path for your production and service. Sometimes publishing a part of Life Cycle Assessment results of your products will show your customers and business partner how sincere your enterprise is to your social responsibility.

Of course, there are many more way to convey your sustainable message to consumers such as through packaging design or other marketing campaign. Above ideas might be old, might be new but they are valuable case studies or information for your enterprise to consider. We hope that you could somehow find them helpful for your business when you decided to commit with your social responsibility.

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WHY WE SHOULD USE CORRUGATED PACKAGING?

Corrugated packaging has become commonly used in almost products nowadays. So, what are the reasons why it is more preferred than other materials? Here are the reasons stated by both consumers and goods manufacturers when choosing corrugated cardboard for packaging.

Corrugated packaging is made from environment-friendly material

The eco-friendliness of corrugated packaging lies in its production and recyclability. Corrugated cardboard is made from recycled paper, which means it provides the solution for paper waste treatment. Most of corrugated boxes could be reused for several times due to its durability. The dumped corrugated box, later, could be collected and brought to papermill for making new cardboards. It prolongs the life cycle of corrugated cardboard, much longer than other materials.  

Corrugated packaging is light-weighted and safe for shipping

In transportation, especially by air, it is very important to use the light packaging to cut cost. Corrugated packaging is much lighter than crate and wooden case and it would be far more sturdy and stronger than normal cardboard. 

With the squared 3d dimension, the corrugated box is also easily loaded and unloaded, suitable for pallets and containers. For this reason, it is used as overpack for almost all of the products for transportation.

Corrugated packaging is flexible for labeling and packaging design

Made from paper, corrugated cardboard is a perfect material for printing your packaging design. It’s also easy to stick or unstick your product label on corrugated box. There are some handling-guide signs in transportation which are better to be printed on the corrugated packaging than other overpack materials.

Corrugated packaging is affordable and available 

Corrugated packaging is cheaper than other materials, like wooden case or crate for outer packaging, or foam lashing for inner packaging. Due to the technology and efficient waste-paper collection, the mass manufacturing capacity of corrugated cardboard makes it available for any needs of packaging. According to IBIS World, the corrugated box industry grew at a steady average annual rate of 1% between 2013-2018.

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EVERY ROUTE LEADS TO THE OCEAN: A SAME STORY OF ALL PLASTIC WASTE

Why do we should replace the plastics by corrugated packaging? The answer seems to be obvious, right? Corrugated package could be made from recycled material, paper package is biodegradable, and it is recyclable as well. While plastic waste is more difficult to recycle, not able to be decomposed by bacteria or other living organisms.

We have talked too much about greatness of the paper packaging but in fact, we also should also know how harmful the plastic material is. Today, it’s time to talk about plastic waste and confront its problem to oceanic world!

How does plastic waste end up in the ocean?

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, only 8.4% of plastic waste produced in 2017 was actually recycled. World Wildlife Fund (WWF) UK pointed out the main source of plastics in the ocean is: Littering… 

The careless disposal of plastic trash fills our ocean with plastics! Even when you dump them on streets, winds, rain and rivers will carry them to the seas. Hence, literally, almost all plastic trash ends up in the ocean. Indeed, each year, more than 8 million tons of plastic is disposed into oceans, accounting for 80% of all marine debris, as per the statistics of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

And the consequences of plastic waste in the ocean are…

The disruption of oceanic ecosystem

Many marine animals like whales, turtles, fishes… get confused between their prey and plastic debris. When eating plastic waste, they then suffer from stomach lacerations, infections, internal injuries and disability of swimming, sometimes till death. 

Floating plastic waste limits the growth of coral reef and spreads the marine organisms and bacteria which is destructive to oceanic ecosystem.

Hazardous for food and health

Micro-plastic particles have been found in tap water, beverage, salt and seafood… are the result of plastic waste in our oceans. They cause developmental, reproductive, neurological, and immune disorders in both humans and wildlives.

Toxic contaminants from seawater, which are also stored in plastic debris, could be absorbed by fish and transferred to human through the food chain. The overall hazard is not estimated yet but for sure, is serious to our health.

We believe the harm of plastic waste in the ocean couldn’t be listed all here but somehow, we could imagine how bad it affects to our lives and environment. By encouraging our customers to replace their plastic packaging by corrugated boxes, we are trying our best to reduce the pressure for the ocean and our health in front of the huge disposal of plastic waste every day.

Source: https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/plastics-material-specific-data

https://www.livescience.com/how-much-plastic-recycling.html

https://www.wwf.org.uk/updates/how-does-plastic-end-ocean

https://www.iucn.org/resources/issues-briefs/marine-plastics#:~:text=The%20most%20visible%20and%20disturbing,are%20filled%20with%20plastic%20debris.

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WHICH INDUSTRIES USE CORRUGATED BOX MOST?

Corrugated box is seen as the most recyclable and reusable packaging. It is used in many industries as a solution for sustainability. Besides its eco-friendliness, corrugated box is preferably used in 2 following industries due to other conveniences besides environmental aspect. 

Electronic product is mostly packed in big corrugated boxes

Electronics are considered as fragile cargos which needs handling with care. Corrugated packaging provides a strong and sturdy protection for these kinds of products. The s-shaped flutes inside corrugated boxes make it like soft mattress against tough shipping, which is safer for electronic items.

Another psychological reason comes from the insight of customers as well. Consumers usually choose electronic applicants which are well-packed and corrugated box seems to be the more robust packaging than other kinds of normal cardboards. 

Shipping industry in general uses mainly corrugated box

Corrugated box is widely used as overpack in shipping generally, due to its convenience in stacking, measuring and safety. Indeed, by standardizing the sizes of package, corrugated boxes could be easily loaded on pallets or into containers, optimizing the spaces in transportation and, as a result, saving the resources used in shipping and logistics. Moreover, corrugated cardboard is lighter than other material, hence, it helps manufacturers to cut cost, especially in air transportation. 

The solid-built design of corrugated box also helps to keep the cargo safe for long voyages. Sometimes, they are specifically used as overpack for dangerous or special goods due to above reasons.

In fact, besides above industries, corrugated boxes are used in almost every product you could find in supermarket, in inner package, outer package or overpack. And you properly know who to contact when you need corrugated packaging for your products! 

Botta Packaging provides many types of corrugated box in both FEFCO and American standards. You can order it online on our website https://instapack.me/ or send us an inquiry email to receive the special promotion for bulk order.

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HISTORY OF CORRUGATED CARDBOARD

Nowadays, we usually take the existence of corrugated cardboard for granted but you never know that it has just been in use for about 200 years. Before 19th century, wooden cases, crates or boxes were more common used for storing and shipping cargo; and as you may know, they were expensive and heavy for transportation and logistics. How corrugated cardboard was born and since when it was popular in packaging are what we are going to tell in this article.

The use of cardboard before corrugated cardboard

According to Wikipedia, the normal cardboard first appeared in France in the 1840s and for decades, the biggest manufacturers of cardboard all based in Valréas, southeastern France. 

During this time, cardboard was used mainly by the silk producers to ship their silk moth and its eggs. Later, Kellogg started to use cardboard for their cereals and this packaging became more popular in processed food industry.

The birth of corrugated paper and boxes

Not until 1856 was corrugated paper invented by Edward G. Healy and Edward E. Allen. However, they only used this kind of wavy thick paper to strengthen the tall hat and had no further intend to develop it in logistics field. 

In 1871, Albert Jones used single-faced corrugated board to wrap bottles and glassware; then, he patterned corrugated paper as shipping material in USA on 20 December of the same year. 

The mass production of corrugated cardboard started in 1874 by the new machinery invention of G.Smith. Later Oliver Long developed the double-faced corrugated cardboard as we use today. In 1895, the corrugated boxed was firstly produced to replace wooden cases or crates in transportation. 

As you can see, no innovation could be available without human’s creation and hard work. The simple stuff like our corrugated cardboard is the contribution of the predecessors to make it into common usage nowadays. Botta Packaging appreciates all those values and we are working day by day to innovate our products. 

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CONSUMERS’ BEHAVIOUR TOWARD SUSTAINABLE PACKAGING

Today’s consumers have raised their awareness about the environment when doing their shopping. Hence, sustainable packaging is essential for your business to win their trust and loyalty, do you believe it? Botta Packaging has collected the results of recent researches about consumer’s perception toward sustainable packaging as a guidance for your green business strategy as following:

Preference toward recyclable materials for sustainable packaging

Represented by a research of scholars from The Bucharest University of Economic and Bucharest Dimitrie Cantemir Christian University in Romania, Romanian consumers prefer the sustainable packaging, which is made out of paper, glass, and cardboard… Among them, 52.9% of shoppers opt for products with packaging from cardboard. 

This result is related to a concern for environmental protection since paper and cardboard are the most recyclable material and give the least impact on the environment and glass is a reusable packaging. 

Willingness to spend more for products with sustainable packaging

The survey, conducted by the Boston Consulting Group on 15000 consumers in US, Europe and South America, has pointed out that 74 percent of questioned shoppers are willing to pay more for sustainable packaging. 

Also, according to this survey, nearly half of consumers would turn away from harmful packaging, especially plastic packaging, regarding to ocean pollution. 

Design of eco-packaging and consumer’s awareness on brand’s sustainable packaging message

Your brand goes green and you need to let your consumers know about it. Conveying your eco-friendly effort through your packaging design could help to draw the attention of customers.

According to a research by Magnier and Schoormans, packaging is the main means of communication regarding the environmental friendliness of the packaging. Consumers evaluate the environment-friendliness of the packaging through its design elements such as material and color. 

The authors pointed out that the fiber-based packaging was perceived by consumers as more environmentally friendly than the plastic packaging. These perceptions were conveyed better to consumers if there is an environmental claim displayed on the packaging.

With above insights, brands have more information in choosing and designing their product packaging toward pro-environmental consumers. Botta Packaging is pleased to consult you further about sustainable packaging solutions and introduce to you our products aiming for sustainability and environment-friendliness.

Reference

Orzan G., Cruceru A.F., Bălăceanu C.T. and Chivu R.G., “Consumers’ Behavior Concerning Sustainable Packaging: An Exploratory Study on Romanian Consumers”, MDPI, 2018

Recycling Magazine, “Sustainable packaging: Consumers willing to pay more”, 2020

Popovic I., Bossink B. A. G, and C. Van der Sijde P.C., “Factors Influencing Consumers’ Decision to Purchase Food in Environmentally Friendly Packaging: What Do We Know and Where Do We Go from Here?”, MDPI, 2019

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