With the rise of e-commerce, how can packaging reduce waste? From PANGAIA to ASKET, more and more brands are making completely sustainable packaging
Steve Jobs once said: "Packaging can be theatre, it can create a story.”
Last year, due to the health emergency, companies were forced to close down their stores, making consumers rethink the purchasing system and companies design and adopt a non-store retailing model. E-commerce platforms' sales rose in the background of the traditional retail system's fall. Adopting the digital mode of working to meet the steep increase in home deliveries, making online sales became a necessity rather than a choice. To replace the store experience and implement it in preserving the brand identity while selling products online, certain brands communicated their DNAs by experimenting with packaging. While some give attention to the number of wrappers and ribbons, others think towards minimizing the quantity of plastic and non-degradable materials and producing either biodegradable or compostable or less-harmful packaging.
What comes with a single package on average?: a barcode sticker, hangtag, welcome card, return instructions, polybag (sometimes the product is wrapped with a wrapping paper and joint with a sticker), shipping label, box, and a box sticker. Not much can be compromised to ensure that the brand and consumer's communication is all accurately set while following the ethical packaging guidelines. Then, what should be prioritized to add to packaging a secondary purpose?
PANGAIA, as the name suggests - PAN (all-inclusive) and GAIA (Mother Nature) - is a global collective of creatives that aims at exploring the framework of circular resources, climate action, and biodiversity in search of designing environmentally-friendly products. Through a collaboration with an Israeli compostable packaging company, TIPA®, the PANGAIA has managed to save the planet from 39.2 tons of polluting plastic and 1.5 million polybags. PANGAIA's team is creating products from organic cotton, engineered seaweed fibre, environmentally conscious dyes with low water waste, and recycled materials. Replacing goose down with FLWRDWN™ made from dried flowers and producing sneakers using grape leather, Pangaia then wraps their products in TIPA® commercially compostable resealable bags.
Given the growing attention to environmental sustainability issues, an interest shared by brands and consumers alike, packaging and its impact on the planet will be an important ground to work on to implement truly ethical and circular practices.
