Nowadays, people are showing major concern for protecting the environment. Consumers are adopting eco-friendly practices. To keep up with the consumer’s preferences, today’s businesses have shown a shift towards green solutions. There are adapting eco-friendly alternatives at a rapid pace. Especially e-commerce businesses are looking forward to eco-friendly packaging for their products.
According to sources, 35% of respondents chose sustainable products for environmental protection. Also, 37% of customers prefer products with eco-friendly packaging. With these approaches, businesses are finding numerous ways to go green.
So, if you, too, want to add green practices to your business, consider sustainability and green packaging. Here, we brought you some reliable, eco-friendly packaging options.
Recyclable Packaging
The recycling process is one of the major eco-friendly practices. You can recycle the plastics and give them a second life. Later, you can use it to pack products. It is a great way to conserve natural resources. The recyclable packaging process will reduce waste in landfills and water bodies. Further, it will prevent pollution in the environment. It will also limit the sourcing of raw materials.
Cellulose Packaging
Cellulose packages come from natural resources straight from trees and animals. You can extract it from cotton, wool, and hemp. It is a biodegradable material. Moreover, it is the best alternative to plastic packaging. If you own food products or FMCG businesses, better to prefer this packaging type. For food brands, it is highly suitable due to its moisture-resistant properties.
Eucalyptus Packaging
Here comes another eco-friendly packaging idea with extraordinary properties. It is a very useful tree aiding in commercial uses. This packaging type has medicinal properties. It will be the best packaging solution for the pharmaceutical industry.
Businesses dealing with medicinal products like vaccines and injections find this a great alternative to plastic packaging. ‘NatureFlex’ is a material that comes from the wood pulp of eucalyptus trees. Moreover, this packaging type improves the life span of the products. This also keeps out moisture and oxygen, affecting the products.
Organic Ecological Textile Packaging
This packaging type not only leads the business to follow ecological practices but also reduces waste. You don’t have to deal with the hassles of waste in your supply chain process. Moreover, it is a multi-purpose and highly durable material. Businesses can replace reusable bags with plastic bags or textile wraps.
There are several organic fabrics available for packaging. Recycled cotton, hemp, palm leaves, and tapioca come under this type. Remember that all these fabric materials are biodegradable. So it won’t take much time to decompose.
Tips for using organic, ecological textiles:
- Use it as a cushioning agent.
- You can also consider using linen as anti-scratch wrap bags.
- Use hemp tapes to bundle products together.
Limestone Packaging
Are you looking for biodegradable packaging solutions without harming trees? Then, pick up the stones. Yes, you heard right! If not trees, then it’s limestones now. The combination of pulverized limestones with some percent polyethylene results in sustainable packaging materials.
With this solution, you can save tons of trees. Shifting to limestone packaging will bring a great positive impact on the environment. Moreover, you add brand designs to the packages. It will appear just like a normal paper.
Mushroom Packaging
Mushroom packaging is the right alternative to Styrofoam. Mycelium plays a role in this packaging type.
If you want sturdy packaging solutions, then go for this solution. It can firmly hold the products and keep them steady. You can use it to package fragile products. Its durable property will keep the products safe inside transit.
Being lightweight, it does make the product packaging heavy. Therefore, it is a safe way to ship goods, along with eco-friendly standards.
Glassline Packaging
If you own a premium and luxury gift shop business, glass line packaging will be the ultimate preference. Moreover, it will withstand your eco-friendly practices. A glass line is something smooth and glossy paper cones from wood pulp. Do you know the best part about it? The intriguing feature is it is recyclable and biodegradable.
Also, it is acid-free with pH neutral. Some businesses use glassine packages to wrap their luxury gifts like scented candles. Likewise, you can also customize to add brand designs.
Palm Leaves Packaging
Palm leaves are one of the common eco-friendly packaging materials. In fact, the packaging solution is suitable for cutlery, disposable bowls, and plates. The material comes from areca palm leaves. It undergoes numerous processes like collecting, cleaning, processing, and molding.
This packaging solution will be beneficial for food brands. In addition, the material is microwave-safe and has a temperature-resistant property. The material is also waterproof and sturdy, stably holding the products.
Seaweed Packaging
After the mushrooms and other tree materials, finally, it’s time for seaweed packaging. Indeed, it is a more reliable green packaging solution. It produces gelatinous substance agar, which finally undergoes dehydration.
After the dehydrating process, it results in a packaging material. You can use it as a soft cushioning material. It is frozen to result in a stiff and film-like state. Later, it undergoes compression to become a packaging material.
Compostable packaging
Compostable materials naturally decompose without the necessity of any treatment. Moreover, it does not leave any harmful chemical or toxic residue in the material. In fact, these packaging materials come from plant-based materials.
You can extract it from corn, bamboo, bio-poly mailers, and sugar cane. Remember that truly compostable materials break down in home compost in just 180 days. At the same time, in commercial composting conditions, it takes 90 days.
Corn Starch Packaging
Cornstarch is new to green packaging solutions. It is specifically for packaging the material materials made out of cornstarch. Moreover, it comes from renewable sources.
So, there’s no chance of releasing harmful toxins into the environment. This makes it biodegradable and sustainable. Cornstarch makes it easy to make biodegradable packing peanuts. Therefore, it is the best alternative to bubble wrap and styrofoam.
Corrugated Packaging
Corrugated packaging is box fibers from trees. It also comes from old corrugated containers. You can use it seven to ten times to make new packaging materials. Additionally, you can recycle it to use it again. This green packaging type is massively used in the e-commerce industry.
Online merchants utilize it to package and ship goods. For example, you can use corrugated boxes for packing wine bottles. It will keep it safe until it reaches the customer.
Final Thoughts
This is all about the available eco-friendly packaging solutions for different product types. It will help your business go green, attracting the environment-conscious generation.
Moreover, you can enhance your green practices and make people aware of buying them. Hence, it’s time to make your business standards environment-friendly and win the hearts of consumers.