Let's get circular

Our environmental impact is felt in pretty much every facet of our lives, but packaging makes our effect very visible. In the 2021  Trivium Packaging  Buying Green Report, 73% of 15,000 consumers like you and me from around the world said they were willing to pay more for eco-friendly packaging. We want to do the right thing. The problem is, we don’t make it easy for ourselves to do the right thing.

It’s easy to think that “recycled” or “recyclable” are binary terms. A material can be either recycled or not, right? In theory, most materials can be recycled, but in reality, the picture is quite a bit more nuanced. Some materials, like plastics, deteriorate when they are recycled and can very often only be recycled 2-3 times before ending up on a landfill or in an incinerator. Other materials, like steel, aluminum, and glass, are at the other end of the spectrum and can be recycled forever. That’s a massive difference! It’s the forever part that makes a material circular as opposed to “just” recyclable.

Even though most people understand the importance of recycling, the infrastructure is not always in place to convert people’s values into the right behavior. Let me give you an example. My parents-in-law live in an area where curb-side recycling pick-up is lacking. They want to recycle, but are simply not in a position to haul big containers of recycling to a collection area that is miles and miles away. That’s why I bring back home bags of sorted recyclables after every visit and recycle it in my area where the infrastructure is better. It’s not rocket science. If we want people to do the right thing, we need to make it easy.

If the nuances of recycling wasn’t difficult enough to get our heads around, according to Ecolabel Index there are over 450 environmental labels currently in use in 199 countries and 25 industry sectors. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that this causes consumers to often misunderstand, overlook, and potentially even mistrust the sustainability credentials of ecofriendly products. Packaging World reports that, in the United States, 38% of consumers stated they have “no idea” which recycling numbers printed on packaging are associated with easier recyclability. The lack of simple and universal labeling standards in combination with messaging overload make it difficult to do the right thing.

It’s easy to point out problems, so let’s talk solutions.

As I mentioned in the beginning, consumers are smart and are demanding better communication from companies. Let’s make sure that happens. Companies in the packaging industry (that’s my industry) as well as the companies we serve, need to step up and dare to provide the full story. We can’t stop when the story becomes inconvenient, difficult, or when it doesn’t fit our corporate messages or the compartmentalized interests of an industry. With more holistic communication, we can make better packaging decisions and use materials for the purpose they are best suited.

To make the right packaging decisions, we need to recognize that not all materials are created equal, but that there is a role to play for most materials. That role, however, may be very different than what is today. @Stuart Landesberg argues for less single use plastics in consumer packaged goods in a recent Fast Company article, and I see from personal experience how emerging brands in the beverage and health and beauty sectors are making different packaging decisions and are incorporating packaging in their business models.

I know it sounds like a tired cliché that says nothing, but we need to work together to make packaging truly circular and sustainable.