Green Packaging: An Innovative Approach for Leading a Sustainable Life on Earth

Packaging holds an important role in delivering specific products to the customer. Leading market players, such as Amazon, Flipkart, FedEx, UPS, and many more ship millions of packages in a day. These packages are flying all across the globe that provide great convenience to the customers, however, all packages are not actually great for the environment. Materials used in packaging including cardboard and papers impart low ecological impact. However, other packaging materials, such as plastic wrappings, plastic bubble wrap, styrofoam sheets, are not at all biodegradable and cause massive solid waste. Moreover, plastic bottle rings around soda cans are even more harmful to the environment. The continuous piling up of these solid wastes has a big hand in the emission of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, and hence is a threat to the environment.

For these reasons, top companies in the world are giving emphasis to the adoption of green packaging. Green packaging is also known as eco-friendly packaging or sustainable packaging which refers to the use of materials for packaging purposes that can be recycled, compostable or biodegradable. In a linear economy, products are manufactured, used, and then discarded. However, green packaging plays a major role in proliferating circular economy, in which resources are kept in use through recycling, harvesting, and reusing.

What are the Materials Used in Green Packaging?

There are lots of resources available that can be specifically used for green packaging. Some of them are listed below:

• Recycled Cardboard and Paper
• Corrugated Bubble Wrap
• Organic Fabrics
• Refurbished Products
• Mushroom-based Packaging
• Recycled Bulk Bags

What are the Key Benefits of Green Packaging?

Making use of green packaging can deliver a wide array of benefits for both consumers as well as the environment. Some of the major benefits are discussed below:

• Reducing the Use of Natural Resources: Green packaging manufacturers can help in minimizing the use of natural resources. This further helps in leaving behind the resources on our planet for future generations.
   
• Providing more Energy-Efficient Manufacturing Methods: The materials used in green packaging require less energy to form the packaging designs, thus, the types of machinery used for green packaging can be run with wind or solar energy instead of using fossil fuels.
   
• Increasing Use of Recycled Products: The simple science behind green packaging is the more we can recycle the used materials of customers, the less energy and waste will be created in making new packaging. From a survey, it is concluded that recycled products require less water and energy than manufacturing brand-new ones.
   
• Helps in Controlling the Trash Problem: Disposal of plastics and other un-biodegradable solid wastes is the major reason behind the emission of harmful greenhouse gases. Green packaging can play a vital role in diminishing this dumping waste problem all across the globe.
   
• Helps in Maintaining Cleaner and Safer Oceans: Plastics are very harmful to marine life. Over the past few years, a major portion of the plastics have been dumped into the oceans. This has worsened the lives of marine mammals, sea birds, and many other marine species to a great extent. Green packaging can be a useful innovative ideology that can help to alleviate these unfortunate conditions.
   
• Enhancing the Use of Renewable Resources: Green packaging helps in widely making use of renewable resources, such as using paper from agricultural fibers instead of extracting papers from cutting down trees.

Future Insight of the Green Packaging Market

With the increasing awareness of environmental protection and the growing importance of sustainable living, the global green packaging market is anticipated to generate a revenue of $451.7 billion by 2028 and rise at a CAGR of 7.0% during the forecast timeframe. Moreover, the increasing industrials trends toward using renewable resources and rising government regulations for environmental sustainability are expected to bolster the growth of the market in the upcoming years.

The Bottom Line

Businesses can grab more customers by adopting green packaging. Stepping ahead with a holistic approach can help in redefining your company’s brand and bringing expansive growth opportunities. With these consistent efforts by leading market players, our Earth can become a cleaner and greener place to live.

About the Author(s)

Princy A. J

Princy holds a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the prestigious Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. University at Chennai, India. After a successful academic record, she pursued her passion for writing. A thorough professional and enthusiastic writer, she enjoys writing on various categories and advancements in the global industries. She plays an instrumental role in writing about current updates, news, blogs, and trends.