Much talk about sustainable packaging has been thrown around the packaging industry over the past few years. Not that sustainable packaging, or at least the concepts behind it, are brand new, but the popularity of such techniques have been on the rise of late for a number of reasons.
Sustainability has arguably grown from several different concepts or issues. For example, a healthier attitude toward eating habits has assisted in growing the popularity of sustainable packaging. People began paying attention to where their food came from, what ingredients were used and how the product was made. Likewise, the trend toward recycling and the notion that the planets resources are not unlimited have helped form the basis for sustainable packaging. Sustainability in packaging can arguably be seen as a gathering of these and other issues in an attempt to reach a truly beneficial end, and because of this the definition of sustainability has been, and continues to be, difficult to define.
A very basic definition of sustainable packaging is "the development and use of packaging which results in improved sustainability." This comes from a wikipedia site and does very little to actually define the term. A better definition comes from the Sustainable Packaging Coalition which states that sustainable packaging:
Is beneficial, safe & healthy for individuals and communities throughout its life cycle;
- Meets market criteria for both performance and cost;
- Is sourced, manufactured, transported, and recycled using renewable energy;
- Optimizes the use of renewable or recycled source materials;
- Is manufactured using clean production technologies and best practices;
- Is made from materials healthy throughout the life cycle;
- Is physically designed to optimize materials and energy;
- Is effectively recovered and utilized in biological and/or industrial closed loop cycles."
While you can see that this definition is much more detailed than the first, it still leaves some room for interpretation. In the first bullet point, how do you define beneficial, safe and healthy? Further down, who determines how to optimize source materials, what are healthy materials and who defines the best practices?
In no way are these questions saying the coalition has failed in their definition of sustainable packaging, they have not. In essence, the definition will always be evolving based on new technologies in processing machinery, packaging machinery and even in logistics.
Truly sustainable packaging will encompass the entirety of the packaging process, not just the package, not focusing just on recycling. Packagers must take into account the raw material that is used in creating the product, but also the package that they choose for that product. The shipping analysis will begin at the delivery of the raw materials for the creation of the product and the package components and continue right through to moving finished products to the shelf. In addition to the creation of the package, some thought will need to be put into what will happen to the package after the product is gone. Another analysis will need to be done on getting the product into the package. What filling machine, capping machine and labeler will complete the job without wasting energy and resources? The analysis is arguably never ending and the definition of sustainable packaging will likely change whenever any of these or other aspects of the packaging process progress or change in any way.
The other reason that the Coalition may have reached the best definition of sustainable packaging possible is that no single packaging process will work across the board. Different processes, different packaging materials, different packaging machines and generally different methods are used for different products. The packaging process for water will not be the same packaging process used for a hazardous chemical, which will not be the same packaging process used for shampoo. The interpretation left open in the coalition's definition must be made and created on a case-by-case basis by each packager based on what will work the best for the specific project.
While some continue to grasp at an all encompassing definition of sustainable packaging, the focus should now be on allowing each packaging company to create their own definition, and from there, their own process, using the Coalition definition as a guide. Though every solution may not be perfect, an effort by each packaging company to create a sustainable packaging process can only lead to a beneficial end.