What are the benefits of a circular economy?
Have you experienced any supply chain issues lately? From fresh produce to consumer-packaged goods, we are currently feeling the strain of living in a linear economy. Companies are relying on sourcing specific materials that are often coming from only one, singular location. These goods are being designed, developed, and shipped with the expectation that they will be used only once and will ultimately end up in a landfill after briefly serving their intended purpose. If 2021 has taught us anything it is that this type of linear economy will not be a sustainable or profitable way to move forward.
What if making small improvements to your packaging could lead to a multitude of benefits for your brand and bottom line? Recently, Shell Polymers published an eBook that discusses that very idea and brings up 3 actionable takeaways that we felt were worth elevating.
The Recycling Partnership, an action agent transforming the recycling system and activating
a circular economy for packaging, recently released a 2021 report titled Paying It Forward: How Investment in Recycling Will Pay Dividends.
A rigorous life-cycle analysis (LCA) is the packaging industry's key tool for examining the environmental impact of our products. The objective of an LCA is to weigh the trade-off of improvements in one area of the life-cycle against the impact it has in another with the aim of improving overall sustainability.
The advantages of flexible packaging with regards to design and material includes easy storage features, supports extended shelf-life, more convenient to open and carry, highly practical resealability, utilizes less material, improves cost economics, less overall weight, improved shipping characteristics, and overall better suited for e-commerce.
