Due to all this marine life struggles to survive. Not just this the energy used to make all those things are making our planet warmer as a result of global warming which is triggering climate change faster than ever in all the 4.543 billion years of Earth.
Even after all this, we are nowhere to end of stopping. If we continue to do this, we will Earth inhabitable. And how many more Earths do we have? None. Just one where we all live yet we are polluting it like we have a backup planet that is ready to move in.
We need to save the only planet we got before it's too late. We need to reduce the waste that we make. This can be achieved by reducing consumption, when we look at the statics we will find out that all that plastic that is thrown into the ocean or left to rot in landfill is mostly from the single-use plastic.
And when we ponder deeper, we will find that most of the single-use plastic is from the packaging industry. Now that we know about the problem area, we can find a way to solve this problem.
A lot of people have suggested a lot of different ways through which we can try to reverse the damage caused to Earth. One of those ways is to make our packaging sustainable.
This gave the idea of sustainable packaging. In this article, we will talk about the 5rs of sustainable packaging. Before all of that, we will tell you what sustainable packaging is along with an example and then at last when we will be done with basics, we will tell you about 5 Rs.
Let's dive into it!
What is sustainable packaging?
Sustainable packaging refers to materials that are responsibly resourced from renewable resources. Those materials do not leave a huge carbon footprint.
The significant feature of sustainable packaging is that it should not harm the environment at any stage as well as leave enough that our future generation won’t suffer from the scarcity of resources.
What is an example of sustainable packaging?
When we talk about packaging there are a lot of things that are used like different varieties of boxes like 3-ply or 5-ply, different types of tapes like brown tape, custom packaging tape, kraft tape, bubble pouches, bubble wrap etc.Corrugated boxes will be the perfect example of sustainable packaging. As most of the corrugated boxes that are manufactured are made from recycled materials.
According to reports, approximately 85% of the corrugated boxes are recovered and recycled back into manufacturing. All these things make corrugated boxes, a great example of sustainable packaging.
What are the R’s of sustainable packaging?
You must have heard of the three R’s sustainability. It is quite similar to that but now, we have added two more to this list. So that we are able to understand the concept of sustainable packaging easily.These are the 5 R’s of sustainable packaging :
Refuse
We know that this is a big step, to be able to control plastic waste. But it will not become possible without our effort. The first step starts with us. So what can we do? The first R is refuse.
When we go shopping then we can easily find products with excessive packaging. All these things contribute a lot to the waste problem. We should avoid it when we do so. The companies will face losses and will be forced to reduce the packaging.
As business owners, as well we should refuse packaging which is not eco-friendly or harms the environment. When you will use eco-friendly packaging then even the customer will be happy to buy your product as it is not made from single-use plastic.
Reduce
The second step in this series is to Reduce. As we have talked about in the above paragraphs how important is to reduce or minimize consumption. We can take an example of a dress that you bought impulsively but then you did not like it and will not wear it. You wasted the resources that were used for manufacturing the dress, and the packaging that came up with it, and it was just a waste as you did not ever wear the dress.
Another instance would be when we order something small and get a ridiculous amount of packaging and filler which could have been used for some other deliveries.
And if you are a business owner, you can try to reduce or minimise the packaging that your product has it will not only help you to save money as well as resources. When a customer will get an overpacked product it will ruin their unboxing experience as well.
Reuse
The third step is to reuse or repurpose the product and the packaging as much as we can. In packaging, it is very common for us to get corrugated boxes in deliveries. These boxes can be repurposed as storage units.
Single-use plastic bags should not be thrown away as they can be used again without any problem. The filler paper and bubble pouches can be used again by wrapping them on fragile items to keep them from breaking. But we must make sure that the bubble on the pouches and wraps are not popped.
Repair
The fourth one, on this list will help you save a lot of money as well as help to keep the Earth clean and prevent the resources from being overused. So what are we talking about? The answer is repair. It might sound like something our great parents or parents did, but hey! It is sustainable to do so.
Let’s take an example of furniture. When we go to buy a piece of furniture the price we will pay will be definitely higher than repairing an old one. By doing this we are not only saving the Earth but also saving money.
Recycle
No discussion about saving the Earth will be complete without talking about recycling. This is a golden way to protect the Earth and saves us from the exploitation of resources.
The perfect example of this would be a corrugated box or cardboard box as we call it. Out of all the packaging products used in this industry, the percentage of recovery and recycling is fairly higher than any other item. We are talking 85% rate of recovery and recycling. This is remarkable in itself.
Conclusion
We have reached the end of this article which is about the 5’s sustainable packaging. Here, we have talked about what sustainable packaging is, along with an example and then we discussed the r’s of sustainability.We hope that you were able to get all the information that you needed.