You know we love packaging, and it’s easy to see why. There’s so many options out there that it’s easy to get lost in it all—cube boxes, front lock mailers, bubble cushion, custom tissue paper, oh my! We especially love a packaging category that’s really been on the rise over the last decade or so, and that’s known as eco-friendly packaging. It’s the materials we’ve known forever, but created in such a way as to leave the environment a little less intruded upon. We’d like to share some of them with you now—and we like so many of them, it’s going to take 2 blogs to cover them all!
Here’s part one of TPC’s favourite eco-friendly packaging options. Part two won’t be far behind!
Kraft Corrugated Boxes
These guys are one of our eco-friendly packaging favourites—that’s no surprise, right? But what can be a surprise is the knowledge that corrugated boxes are recyclable and biodegradable, provided they’re not ruined by chemical inks or grease stains. Simply break them apart sensibly, drop them in your recycling bins, and rest easy knowing they’re going onto a second life. Maybe as an FLM, or a shoebox, or a pizza box. Mmm, pizza.
Fun Fact: In most residential areas, pizza boxes are compostable. Tear them up into small pieces and they can go right into your composting bins—alongside the uneaten crust pieces!
Green Recycled Bubble
Made with 25% post-consumer recycled material, recycled bubble rolls are still 100% the bubble cushion we all know and love. It’s an ideal choice for void filling, product cushioning and surface protecting, while being a cleaner, greener alternative than standard bubble cushioning. It’s also literally green. Its colour makes it a surprising void fill, a perfect match for a packaging strategy based on recycled materials, and a really good-looking unboxing experience. Plus, you can still pop it!
Biodegradable Packing Peanuts
While still not edible, biodegradable packing peanuts are a much better choice for the environment than their polystyrene-based siblings. Made from a variety of options like renewable non-food sources, cornstarch or other vegetable components, many of them decompose in ways that leave no toxic waste behind. Though there are plenty of other void fill options out there, we still enjoy the thrill of burying our hands into a box of packing peanuts and fishing around for the products we’ve ordered.
Padded Mailer Envelopes
While we all love bubble mailer envelopes, they’re not the easiest to recycle. Separating the bubble cushion from the kraft paper takes some work, and we don’t always have the time for that. That’s why recycled content padded mailer envelopes are among our favourite eco-friendly packaging options. The envelopes themselves are double-walled and made with at least 25% post-consumer content. Then those double walls are stuffed with yesterday’s news—that is, 100% recycled paper fibers from newspapers. They’re eco-friendly and ready-to-ship. And once you’re done with them, they can go right in the recycling box.
Since packaging itself isn’t going away any time soon, eco-friendly packaging is clearly the way of the future. We need to reduce our effect on the environment, and The Packaging Company is all for that. Thanks for reading part one of TPC’s favourite eco-friendly packaging options, and we’ll see you back here again soon for part two!
