Packaging for a Circular Economy — Week 1 (review)

When a product depends on the packaging to be used — it is considered a product-packaging combination (PPC).

Summary of week 1:

• Integrating the product and its packaging — meaning developing the packaging with the design of the product. The goal is to design a product where the packaging is not needed, or that the packaging is minimal, and or reusable, recyclable, or compostable.
• Thinking about the end-of-life cycle of the packaging, and whether the packaging helps receive the product, such as a soap dispenser or milk carton.
• Involve more people in the PPC’s value chain — designers, engineers, stakeholders, consumers, waste collectors and the like.

Insights from Lush: Questions that are important to consider:

1. What will be its function?
2. What is it made of?
3. Where does it come from?
4. How can we ensure the safety of the product in transportation?
5. What will happen to it at the end of its life?
6. How will the consumer store the product (aka how will storage look like?)

Insights from Lush: How do their recycling systems work?

• their product is only made out of 1 material which makes it easier to recycle — black pots
• their recycling process is in store, meaning lush takes up the responsibility of recycling their products themselves — they are doing this because they did not want this burden to fall on the consumer
• often products are made out of virgin plastics — because

1. companies (sometimes inaccurately) that there is not much of a profit to be made with using recycled plastics
2. the production process requires a few adjustments to work with recycled plastics
3. manufactures are unwilling to learn nor change their manufacturing processes ~ and their consistent quality of products

HOWEVER, there is increasing consumer demand for products made out of recycled plastics, and lush is one company that’s doing that — new black pots are made out of old ones.

CHALLENGES: getting consumers to bring back used containers in store for recycling

Narrowing on another widely used food product: Milk. Is milk better in cardboard packaging, PET bottle, or glass bottle? Each of these options has its own advantages and disadvantages. More in the next post!