Driving to work, cooking, even taking a shower – all activities in our daily routine and they all contribute to our carbon footprint. We can all make changes in our personal life to reduce the affect we’re having on the environment, but what about as a company?
With the vast amount of CO2 produced when manufacturing products, companies contribute massively to global warming (having a negative impact on our environment). If you haven’t already, it’s time to start thinking about the environment and begin reducing your carbon footprint. We’ll help you, don’t worry.
But what role can packaging play in reducing your company’s carbon footprint?
A BIG one.
It starts at the very begging of your supply chain - certain packaging products produce more CO2 when manufactured, and what about transport emissions? Or renewable packaging? There’s a lot you can do to reduce your company’s carbon footprint. Take a look.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
We’re all aware of the three Rs that are widely associated with helping save the environment. You guessed it; packaging isn’t an exception to these.
1. Reduce
Where possible, eliminate the amount of packaging materials you are using. There are three ways you can do this:
- Correct staff training – Let your staff know how impactful their work is to the environment. Train them to package products efficiently and you won’t only be helping the environment, you’ll be saving money too.
- Automated machines – If you’ve read our previous blogs, you’ll notice we mention automated machines a lot. There’s a reason for this: you can’t beat how efficient they are.
- Packaging design – Without the right shaped packaging for your products, you’ll be wasting a lot of material. A long with this, you could be shipping unnecessary air. Not only is this bad for the environment but has a negative impact on your packaging costs. If you collaborate with a packaging expert like Swiftpak, you could take advantage of lower transport costs with smaller packages.
Ultimately, if you can reduce the amount of material you are using, you’ll reduce CO2 emissions.
2. Reuse
Beyond minimising the amount of packaging you are using, making the most of your materials life is essential. If you can reuse packaging, you won’t need as much material manufactured (again reducing CO2 emissions).
Plastic pallets are a great example of reusable packaging. I know what you’re thinking, “plastic?” Yes, plastic isn’t our enemy. Plastic pallets are reliable, reusable and a great alternative to wood. They’re easy to clean, lightweight, splinter-free and can be used many, many times.
3. Recycle
Introduce recyclable packaging materials to your business and you’ll reduce your carbon footprint massively. Recycling uses less energy and produces less pollution than making more packaging materials from scratch.
Being made from natural resources such as paper or potato starch, Gummed paper tape is a great example of recyclable packaging. Another example would be a paper void-fill machine which also could save you some valuable space in your warehouse.