Packaging Impressions Parlor: Circular Design Practices Deliver a Better Packaging Solution

Too often, we focus our sustainability efforts on what happens at the end of a product’s lifecycle — how we dispose of it, recycle it, or reuse it. But effective sustainability must also include the beginning of a product’s lifecycle — sourcing, designing, and protecting the resources that make fiber-based packaging a truly sustainable option.

Historically, our industry has accelerated the transition to a more circular economy even as the demand for our products has increased. During a Circular Economy Innovation Roundtable co-hosted by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, experts agreed that circular economy innovation is key to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.

DS Smith has adopted circular design principles, developed in partnership with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, to encourage a circular business model within the packaging industry. | Credit: DS Smith

At DS Smith, we couldn’t agree more. Our focus and concentration on making packaging more sustainable is good business, considering the longer-term market momentum away from less-circular, single-use, or hard-to-recycle packaging. Heightened demand requires intensified innovation. It’s an opportunity to focus more time and resources on the product design phase. DS Smith follows a set of circular design principles that we developed alongside the Ellen MacArthur Foundation to bring a circular business model to the packaging industry.

Circular design principles manifest themselves in five keyways:

1. Protect brands and products:

Packaging protects products and all the resources invested in them from physical damage (impacts, drops, and vibration) and environmental conditions (heat, moisture, and dust). Also, packaging should protect people from harm by providing excellent ergonomics and ease of handling).

2. Optimize materials and structure:

This means not using more material than necessary. Optimizing the use of packaging materials saves resources and reduces waste, including physical construction (using material only when needed) and material direction.

3. Maintain and recover materials:

Quality, durability, and recyclability are key to keeping packaging products and materials in use for as long as possible, reducing waste. This means maximizing the use of the fibers and recognizing the value of the component parts beyond the primary function as the package’s potential for reusability, collapsibility, or recyclability.

4. Maximize supply efficiencies:

Packaging makes supply chains more efficient, from converter to consumer. With an end-to-end approach that considers every step of the way, from storage and warehouse optimization (cost and carbon savings) to customers’ factories, packaging lines, and ergonomics optimization,

5. We find a better way:

By living our values, DS Smith challenges ourselves and our customers to develop more circular packaging solutions.

Following these principles allows innovation with sustainability at its core. They offer customers packaging solutions that design out waste, provide alternatives to plastics, and help accelerate the transition to a more circular economy. Smarter design saves resources by requiring less packaging material, reduces CO2 emissions across the supply chain, and boosts environmental performance. Those benefits go beyond our manufacturing peers; they speak directly to consumers.

In a recent study conducted by McKinsey & Company, 39% of consumers indicated the environmental impact of packaging is extremely or very important to their purchasing decisions. And what’s more, they are willing to pay for it. The study also indicated that 4% to 7% of consumers are willing to pay a premium well above 10% for a more sustainable packaging option.

A shift from plastic to fiber-based packaging is a potentially dynamic growth trend coming out of consumers’ attitudes toward sustainability. In the report “Plastic Replacements Driving Sustainability Trends in Pulp & Paper Industry” from Fisher Intl, Nancy Hasson, senior consultant, Business Intelligence, noted: “If we calculate potential replacement of plastic packaging in the U.S. and Europe as public concern over plastic waste continues, Fisher estimates that a 5% replacement of plastic with paper would consume 1.5 million tons of paper, both virgin and recycled.”

DS Smith Lift Up, a product manufactured in partnership with packaging machine company Krones, substitutes plastic carriers used for beverage multi-packs with a fully recyclable cardboard-based handle. | Credit: DS Smith

Continuing to develop new, paper-based options is key if the packaging industry is to meet consumers’ expectations. I have seen this first-hand at DS Smith’s international operations, where our designers have created more than 1,000 designs for paper-based alternatives to six-pack soft drink carriers, fruit and vegetable punnets, and much more. In 2020, we set a goal to replace 1 billion pieces of plastic from our customers’ packaging by 2025, and we ended up reaching that goal 16 months ahead of schedule.

An industry in demand with a product that can positively impact the environment is a position many would covet. That is why the packaging community should continue pushing the limits of sustainability. With a focus on innovative design for optimized product life cycles, packaging is critical to move from the make/take/waste of a linear economy to a more circular future.