Eco-green packaging

2022/02/24

Panorama, issues and solutions

What consumers expect as a priority from packaging is that it is ecoresponsible and recyclable. However, the fact of being “recyclable” is not enough of itself to make packaging ecologically virtuous.

In the mantra of the 3R’s (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) recycling is in last place, and this is not by chance. To move toward a genuinely circular economy, all the 3R’s need to be applied, and in the given order :

1 – Start by eliminating everything that is not necessary; simplify, refine, lighten, and use as many “circular” materials as possible (recycled, biosourced, etc.). All this reduces the ecological footprint of the product.

2 – Next, make sure that the packaging produced remains in the circuit as long as possible, by reusing it as many times as possible, as opposed to using it only once. In this way, the resources and energy invested in the pack pay for themselves over a large number of uses.

3 – And finally, but only then, when after a long life of multiple uses the packaging needs to be withdrawn from circulation, it must be possible to recycle it, so that it does not become waste and the material of which it is made is not lost, or – worse – that it goes on to pollute nature. Recycling is not the best solution: far better is reduction or maximised reuse, upstream of the cycle.

Efforts must be channelled into the massive implementation of reuse. This is less simple than recycling, because it may require the creation of a supply chain downstream, for collecting, cleaning and repackaging for reinsertion into the circuit. What is more, these operations – in order to be economically and ecologically viable – must be deployed widely to benefit from economies of scale. Yet re-use enables luxury and ecological virtue to be reconciled : sustainable packaging can allow itself to be luxurious, since the investment that it represents will be paid off over multiple cycles of use.

The challenge of sustainable innovation today is to reinvent a sustainable consumption model, taking into account the complete (and circular) life cycle of products and packs, and not simply optimising an isolated compartment of their value chain.

Doing without fossil fuels is the biggest challenge facing us in the years to come (…) the ecological transition obviously involves costs and major transformations, but it is better to go ahead with this now than to have to be forced into doing it at the eleventh hour, when its implementation will prove all the trickier. Pascale BROUSSE – Director – TREND SOURCING.

Articled based on the conference ECO-GREEN PACKAGING, with the interventions of Gérald MARTINES, Founder and CEO – IN-SIGNES, Pascale BROUSSE, Director – TREND SOURCING.
Edition Spéciale 2021 by LUXE PACK – Paris, Carreau du Temple.