Smart Packaging Design for Sustainable Packaging

We improve conventional packaging for a sustainable future with smart packaging design.

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Successful Smart Packaging Design for Sustainability encompasses 4 target areas, also known as the 4 “R’s”; Redesign, Reduction, Reuse of Recycled Content, and Responsible Material choices.

Optimized packaging designs are not only beneficial for the environment but can save you money! Reducing excess material with our customized window box packaging results in a lighter package, providing cost savings in material and shipping, as well as reduced CO₂ emissions across the value chain. Printex Transparent Packaging has solutions to help you satisfy your company and consumers’ expectations for better sustainability and recycling in your packaging.

The Four Rs
Smart Packaging Design
Eco-PET Series
Package Circularity
Smart Design for Recycling Packaging

The Four Rs of Smart Packaging Design

Through smart packaging design, we can create beautiful retail cartons and achieve our sustainability goals. We can do this with the 4 Rs:

Tools for Smart Packaging Design

Sustainable Design

Redesign

Smart packaging design for “Separate & Recycle”. Our Eco-Designs, made from recyclable paperboard and PET, are easily separable, resulting in hassle-free recycling for the consumer. This optimizes recycling rates for multi-material packaging. Both paperboard and PET should be easy to separate so they can both be recycled in their appropriate streams.

Reduction

Smart packaging is designed to reduce waste. Meet your sustainability goals and reduce waste by using our smart design window packaging made from Post-Consumer recycled PET and paperboard, both of which come from recycled material and can be recycled again! These folding cartons ship flat greatly reducing warehousing space, compared to some other packaging alternatives, and the costs and economics associated with transporting fewer boxes.

Reuse

Contribute to the circular economy by using Post-Consumer Recycled PET and recyclable paperboard. Utilizing recyclable and recycled paper means we are reducing deforestation and disruption of natural biodiversity, while using recyclable and recycled clear PET reduces our need to extract additional fossil fuels — and both help divert packaging from going to landfills. Our Eco-PET is available as 25%, 50% & 100% Post-Consumer recycled material.

Responsible

Utilize Recycled Content and material that can be recycled. There are many eco-friendly material options to choose from for your folding cartons and window boxes, including Folding Boxboard (FBB). FBB is lightweight and uses less wood without compromising on quality. It’s easily recycled, sustainably sourced, and produced using mostly fossil-free energy, thus reducing CO₂ emissions. Additionally, be sure to check out Post-Consumer Recycled PET as a sustainable option.

Smart Packaging Design for Sustainability

We can improve your packaging to be more sustainable with a smart packaging design that ensures material separation and recyclability. Below are some samples of how to achieve this.

The Eco-Smart Window Packaging provides the visibility you want for outstanding shelf appeal while being easy to separate in 3 simple steps for recycling.

Tear open the paperboard box with the tear strip down the side. Our Post-Consumer Recycled PET window separates cleanly so that the two recyclable materials can be easily deposited in the proper receptacle. This redesign for “Separate & Recycle” is intended to make recycling easy for the consumer and for recycling facilities.

Go one step further and use recycled content by choosing up to 100% Post-Consumer Recycled (PCR) PET from our Eco-PET Series to contribute to the circular economy. Post Consumer Recycled (PCR) PET is made from PET plastics such as water bottles, that have been collected, processed, and transformed into new material. PET is the most recycled plastic in the world.

Go another step further with a redesign by reducing material with your custom smart packaging design, using only what is necessary for product visibility and protection. Engage our talented packaging designers to help you design a sustainable, eye-catching carton!

Finally, take it all the way by making responsible material choices such as switching to lightweight, easily recyclable, responsibly sourced, and sustainably produced Folding Boxboard (FBB). FBB’s lightweight design also contributes to reduction because less raw material is required to construct the paperboard. Then add a 2 or 3-sided easily separatable clear window to your carton to get the shelf attention you want! A Clemson University packaging study showed visual packaging garnered 675% increased attention compared to regular carton packages.

Wine Twin Pack with Paperboard Insert

Redesign for Smart packaging that does not sacrifice the retail appearance of the product inside; branding can be added with a separate paperboard insert.

For recycling:

Take out the paperboard insert
Put clear PET package and paperboard insert in Recycle Bins

Eco-PET Series (Post-Consumer Recycled PET)

There is “value recovery” for PET that is turned into Post-Consumer Recycled PET

Sustainably responsible packaging keeps plastics circulating

Post-consumer recycled PET helps your company meet recycled content requirements

You may have noticed that some of the largest fast-food brands in the world have switched to using clear PET for their beverages, instead of the coated paper cups previously used. The primary reason is that PET cups have recyclable material value and are thus converted back into new products after collection. In contrast, paper cups which have plastic coatings, have virtually no recyclable value, so they never made it out of the recycling sorting centers onto the reclamation stage.

Reuse Recycled Content by using Printex Transparent Packaging’s Post Consumer Recycled (PCR) PET from our Eco-PET Series, you could be re-using one of the plastic fast-food cups or water bottles you enjoyed just a couple of months ago!

Thanks to continuous improvements in R&D, we have clear PET made from 25%, 50%, and 100% RPET. PET can be recycled over and over again, so by using Post-Consumer Recycled PET—you are manufacturing with material that has already been recycled and is part of the circular economy.

Package Circularity

Packaging is designed for circularity featuring Redesign, Reduction, Reuse, Recycled Content, and Recyclability

Helping the government implement a circular economy for plastics could reduce plastic and carbon pollution and create tens of thousands of jobs. It’s not about eliminating plastic; it’s about working towards zero plastic waste. There is considerable “value recovery” in using Post-Consumer Recycled PET. What do we mean by “value recovery”? Value recovery models focus on the application of recycling or recovery strategies in a product’s after-use phase. Products and materials are re-processed to minimize wastage and resource use.

While governments are working to improve collection rates, packaging designers and packaging manufacturers have a responsibility to optimize packaging design to create easy-to-separate materials and easy-to-recycle smart packaging design. To keep plastics circulating, you can do more than use recyclable PET. Sustainable plastic packaging can be made from material that has already been recycled, like Post-Consumer Recycled PET (PCR). For our paperboard products, we improve conventional packaging for a sustainable future by making responsible material choices such as switching to lightweight, easily recyclable, responsibly sourced, and sustainably produced paper boards.

Smart Design for Recycling Packaging From Printex Transparent Packaging

Printex Transparent Packaging is an industry leader in the development and manufacture of custom, high-quality, sustainable, and smart packaging solutions. Our team of designers and manufacturing professionals have extensive experience with designing packaging around the 4 Rs for sustainability and product visibility. Our seasoned experts can create packaging with a variety of printing and decorating methods, including offset printing, silk-screening, embossing, and hot or cold foil stamping. Sustainability doesn’t have to mean less attractive packaging; we can provide you with solutions that will provide beautiful brand-enhancing product packaging while, at the same time, implementing your sustainability goals!

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