How Being Eco-Friendly is Affecting the Packaging Market

It’s becoming more and more common for companies to embrace an eco-friendly mentality, which is great news for all involved. Lower carbon emissions, less pollution and a more transparent manner of conducting business are just a handful of the reasons that people should celebrate an eco-friendly mindset.

Some might consider it a costly endeavour, but in reality, there are a wealth of benefits for companies going green. Growing trends show that consumers really respond well to eco-friendly, sustainable products, and taking an active part in recycling is more important than ever.

Rombus Packaging takes a look at the many ways that eco-friendly products can affect the market, whether it’s influencing industries or simply swaying the minds of customers.

Eco-Friendly Image
Widespread coverage and an almost unanimous agreement on the risks, dangers and perils of global warming have opened up a lot of eyes around the world. Once hailed as a solve-all miracle, people now understand how damaging plastic can be for the environment, and thus see the likes of plastic bags and plastic straws as terrible burdens to the earth.

Growing landfills and the persistent abuse of the ocean has driven home the point that we cannot rely on plastic nearly as much as we used to, even a decade ago. With this awareness, the leading minds of science, as well as a majority of the population, have looked at the largest contributors to potential pollution; companies and corporations.

In turn, companies have had to rapidly adapt to an eco-friendly mentality or risk going the way of the dinosaurs. By accepting eco-friendly practices, offering eco-friendly products and exploring potential eco-friendly packaging, the market as a whole will demand, more and more, for companies to do right by the environment. By striving to beat the competition, eco-friendly efforts will become much more easily accessible, as well as generally improved.

Showcasing to the world that you’re ready, willing and able to adapt to the eco-friendly movement will do nothing but improve how consumers see you and your brand. At the end of the day, it should go without saying that, even from a purely business perspective, having your customers on your side is exactly what you should be aiming for.

Eco-Friendly Products
The terms ‘eco-friendly’ and ‘natural’ are virtually synonymous, mostly due to the fact that they’re often made from natural ingredients, don’t contain any harmful chemicals and can be entirely recycled. The great thing about a growing market for eco-friendly products is that essentially every industry or business can make use of eco-friendly items, and the number of conventional products that can be replaced with eco-friendly alternatives can be truly surprising.

Inspiration appears to be striking everywhere, with plenty of fascinating examples cropping up across the world. From the German ‘Room in a Box’, a bed made entirely of recycled cardboard, to simple things like recycled toilet tissue, virtually every element of life within the home or within a business can be upgraded with a green mentality.

Attitudes towards eco-friendly products have been recorded to be positive, with a survey conducted by Survey Monkey revealing that out of 1,000 participants, approximately 33% of consumers prefer eco-friendly products and are willing to pay extra for that green reassurance.

However, it can be difficult to truly ascertain which products are eco-friendly, thanks in no small part to confusing or misleading labelling. There are a whole host of different symbols to look out for when searching for eco-friendly products including but not limited to the iconic Mobius Loop (three green arrows that indicate whether the product can be recycled), the Green Seal (a sign specifically used to indicate that products are safe for the environment) and an Energy Start (primarily used to denote energy saving electrical products).

Eco-Friendly Packaging
One of the main concerns with conventional products is the packaging used for them; especially if they are deemed excessive or unnecessary. Eco-friendly packaging, which is significantly more biodegradable than plastic counterparts, has seen a tremendous boost in popularity recently, with some innovative companies truly pushing the boundaries of what can be done with their packaging.

A mere handful of innovations include the Ooho, an edible water pod that serves as a novel and charming alternative to plastic water bottles, Tomorrow Machine’s Expanding Bowl, a food storage solution that expands into a bowl when filled with hot water, and even paper bubble wrapping.

More common and widespread applications of eco-friendly packaging would be paper straws, which are almost universally beloved in comparison to their plastic counterparts. Industry leaders, such as McDonalds, have been trialling paper straws for some time now, with many others following suit or completely ditching straws altogether.

When large market players make their moves, it’s common to see others doing the same. This is true of any industry too, as recent examples of other eco-friendly adaptations have seen H&M, ASOS and Iceland begin sourcing sustainable materials and more ethical practices when creating their products, with the latter vowing to cease using palm oil.

Eco-Friendly Future
With steady progress being made by a wide variety of different companies, it seems inevitable that being eco-friendly will soon become the norm. Every other element of business is becoming more and more green, such as energy generation and consumption, and so embracing eco-friendly products and eco-friendly packaging seem to be the logical next step.

In conclusion, there are plenty of easy to remember, and easy to love, benefits that can be enjoyed when going green. Easily disposable & biodegradable packaging, lower shipping costs for products, an overall reduction of your carbon footprint and, of course, a far more appealing brand image.

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About the author
Tom Simpkins has written everything from books to business proposals but has found a love for working on articles for a host of different clients. When he’s not writing, Tom’s an avid mixologist, an enthusiastic cook and a hopeless lover of corgis.