Sustainable Packaging Is Sometimes Doubling as Easier-to-Open Packaging
When Sarah Ryan Hudson, an environmental attorney, purchased the Dr. Jane Goodall Barbie doll to add to her collection of inspiring desk trinkets, she was pleasantly surprised by the unboxing experience. Get more news about
https://www.fulampaper.com Packaging Boxes White Board,you can vist our website!
Unlike the Barbies from her youth that had to be forcefully pried or cut from plastic boxes and ties, her miniature version of the environmentalist Dr. Goodall came tied with paper string to a cardboard mount in a plastic-free cardboard box—no scissors required. I just thought it was a really good example of how when we’re making a sustainable swap, people aren’t missing out—it’s actually improving the user experience,” Ms. Hudson said.
Manufacturers for years more or less ignored consumer complaints about hard-to-open packaging, often prioritizing competing goals such as safely transporting products over further distances or preventing tampering and theft. The costs involved in overhauling packaging systems also made them reluctant to change for the benefit of a less-finicky opening experience.
But companies have responded to regulators, shareholders and consumers’ pushes for sustainability, campaigns that have been harder to dismiss than requests for better accessibility. Companies say that by reducing plastic packaging, using recyclable materials and using less material overall will help their products stand out and remain competitive among a more environmentally-conscious consumer base, despite the repackaging costs, which most declined to disclose.
But, in doing so they are finally, if at times incidentally, making some products easier to open.
The easier-to-access Jane Goodall, for example, is part of a broader sustainability push at Mattel Inc., the maker of Barbie, with changes including removing the plastic window from some boxes and replacing the majority of its plastic straps with elastic staples or paper ties.
Danish toy company the Lego Group had a similar outcome when it adopted a goal of producing all its packaging from sustainably sourced materials by 2025 and took a new look at the plastic brick bags inside its cardboard boxes. The company in 2020 said it would over three years invest up to $400 million in sustainability and social responsibility initiatives.One thing I think we found—and I don’t think we knew this before—was that kids sometimes couldn’t open the plastic bags without scissors or without an adult,” said Tim Brooks, the brand’s vice president of environmental responsibility.
Lego began introducing paper brick bags coated with a thin plastic lining, designed with tear-off tops and flat bottoms so builders could stand them upright.
“We use this as an example internally of how when you apply sustainability, it can make [other] things even better,” Mr. Brooks said. The company hopes all sets will come with paper bags inside by 2025, a spokeswoman said.
To be sure, shifts toward more sustainable materials haven’t made packaging easier to use across the board, and campaigners for widely accessible packaging say companies aren’t moving to provide it quickly enough.
Sustainable Packaging Is Sometimes Doubling as Easier-to-Open Packaging
When Sarah Ryan Hudson, an environmental attorney, purchased the Dr. Jane Goodall Barbie doll to add to her collection of inspiring desk trinkets, she was pleasantly surprised by the unboxing experience. Get more news about https://www.fulampaper.com Packaging Boxes White Board,you can vist our website!
Unlike the Barbies from her youth that had to be forcefully pried or cut from plastic boxes and ties, her miniature version of the environmentalist Dr. Goodall came tied with paper string to a cardboard mount in a plastic-free cardboard box—no scissors required. I just thought it was a really good example of how when we’re making a sustainable swap, people aren’t missing out—it’s actually improving the user experience,” Ms. Hudson said.
Manufacturers for years more or less ignored consumer complaints about hard-to-open packaging, often prioritizing competing goals such as safely transporting products over further distances or preventing tampering and theft. The costs involved in overhauling packaging systems also made them reluctant to change for the benefit of a less-finicky opening experience.
But companies have responded to regulators, shareholders and consumers’ pushes for sustainability, campaigns that have been harder to dismiss than requests for better accessibility. Companies say that by reducing plastic packaging, using recyclable materials and using less material overall will help their products stand out and remain competitive among a more environmentally-conscious consumer base, despite the repackaging costs, which most declined to disclose.
But, in doing so they are finally, if at times incidentally, making some products easier to open.
The easier-to-access Jane Goodall, for example, is part of a broader sustainability push at Mattel Inc., the maker of Barbie, with changes including removing the plastic window from some boxes and replacing the majority of its plastic straps with elastic staples or paper ties.
Danish toy company the Lego Group had a similar outcome when it adopted a goal of producing all its packaging from sustainably sourced materials by 2025 and took a new look at the plastic brick bags inside its cardboard boxes. The company in 2020 said it would over three years invest up to $400 million in sustainability and social responsibility initiatives.One thing I think we found—and I don’t think we knew this before—was that kids sometimes couldn’t open the plastic bags without scissors or without an adult,” said Tim Brooks, the brand’s vice president of environmental responsibility.
Lego began introducing paper brick bags coated with a thin plastic lining, designed with tear-off tops and flat bottoms so builders could stand them upright.
“We use this as an example internally of how when you apply sustainability, it can make [other] things even better,” Mr. Brooks said. The company hopes all sets will come with paper bags inside by 2025, a spokeswoman said.
To be sure, shifts toward more sustainable materials haven’t made packaging easier to use across the board, and campaigners for widely accessible packaging say companies aren’t moving to provide it quickly enough.
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