Every day a barrage of messaging incites us to recycle and reuse. Creating a more sustainable way of life is crucial for the future of our planet. That responsibility lies in both us as individuals and also as part of our corporate social responsibility and values.
As a packaging company, Packaging for Retail acknowledges and embraces the part we play in ensuring that our products do not contribute to further damage to the environment. To this end, we ensure we only manufacture products made from 100 per cent recyclable materials.
Understanding the difference between recyclable and reusable is important in ascertaining your own sustainability policy. As well as fulfilling your own environmental obligations, it is also a vital aspect of establishing your brand story and credentials. Today, many consumers will judge a company on its eco stance and whether or not you encourage packaging recycling or urge people to reuse packaging.
Recycled or recyclable?
Don’t get caught up by the strapline of a company that promotes its products made from recycled products and packaging that is recyclable. Although the two can co-exist, the one doesn’t always guarantee the existence of the other.
Not every product made of recycled material can itself be recycled. You do not want it to end up in landfill, so care needs to be taken to ensure that it can be reused if it can’t be recycled.
Recycling use
Reusable packaging always puts us in mind of the old-fashioned strong bags that our parents’ generation would use when shopping daily for groceries down at the local corner shop.
As children, many of us of a certain age still remember taking empty drink bottles back to shops for a penny refund. While others recall leaving empty milk bottles out on the doorstep for the milkman to collect and replace with full ones, which he transported in his electric milk float!
Finding examples that reused packaging from our recent history is not difficult – which begs the question, how have we managed to get to the point where five trillion plastic bags are used globally every year? Yet, a more sustainable approach remains in the living memory of millions of us.
The world has moved on, but the message is getting through. Millions have reverted back to reusing bags for their weekly shopping since the supermarkets started charging for plastic bags. This has led to a reduction in the amount of plastic waste polluting the planet, but it is still a drop in the ocean compared to what still needs to be done to reduce our overreliance on this damaging material.
If you would like to ensure that your packaging is as sustainable and environmentally friendly as possible, then drop us a line, and we would be happy to reassure you.
