Sustainable Packaging Trend Keeps Growing

July 10, 2007

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CEOs of leading corporations are embracing the concept of sustainable packaging – not just increasing recycled or renewable content in packages but also redesigning the packaging to minimize the environmental impact of making the goods and transporting them, The Enquirer reports.

Recent research from The Freedonia Group has found that the demand for rigid, reusable containers is expected to grow 3.5 percent annually to $6.6 billion by 2011 as companies switch to reusable packaging to reduce what they send to landfills, according to the article.

“I’ve been in the packaging business for 24 years, and this is the fourth time there’s been a ‘green’ movement, but this time it’s for real,” Mark Matthews, vice president of packaging at xpedx, the packaging and paper distribution unit of International Paper Co, told The Enquirer.

Matthews said xpedx was able to save a major electronics company about $30 million in 12 months by reducing the size of the boxes holding its products.

The move towards reduced packaging got a big push when Wal-Mart announced that it would measure its 60,000 worldwide suppliers on their ability to develop packaging and conserve natural resources. Wal-Mart expects the project to reduce overall packaging by five percent and save 667,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.

Procter & Gamble recently announced that it would begin selling liquid detergents in double-strength concentrations that will give consumers a bottle half the former size.

More information on sustainable packaging can be found here.

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