Opening Lines
Is Your Package Truly Green?
By Marie Redding, Senior EditorWe didn’t officially plan an environmentally friendly theme for this issue, yet discussions about sustainable packaging made their way into several of this issue’s articles, including the Paper, Printing, and Cartons article and our Inside Design column. In our Bath and Body Products feature, Gina Garrubbo, CEO and cofounder of Natural Beauty Innovations, maker of the new natural skin care brand Terralina Beauty, spoke about how it is sometimes difficult to be sure that her decisions regarding suppliers and materials are environmentally friendly.
Although Garrubbo chose 100% recycled materials for her plastic bottles, she wanted to be certain of their environmental benefits. She was also concerned about the source of the recycled material. “We needed someone to put his or her stamp of approval on some of our suppliers and materials,” Garrubbo says.
She found Tim Greiner, cofounder of Pure Strategies, an environmental consulting firm that helps clients in the beauty industry sort out the pros and cons of the different packaging options available today. “Tim helped us verify that the source our supplier used for our postconsumer recyclate (PCR) was ‘clean,’” Garrubbo says.
“There is definitely a lot of ‘green hype’ in the market now, and there is some genuine confusion as to what really constitutes ‘green,’” says Greiner. When clients call Pure Strategies for packaging advice, Greiner can provide them with a customized analysis of several options, such as a comparison of the different plastics for bottles. He might also come up with a grading system to indicate which areas could be improved in terms of a supplier’s sustainable business practices. He will also investigate production methods, energy use, and farming methods for raw materials.
One issue Greiner has been discussing a lot lately concerns polylactic acid (PLA) resin. Sometimes Greiner’s clients are surprised to hear his comments. “PLA is a tremendous innovation, but by no means can we say that it is truly sustainable. The way that industrial corn is grown in order to produce the resin isn’t sustainable in any way.”
PLA is also not compatible with our current recycling system. “PLA could contaminate the recycling stream. It has many end-of-life issues that must be sorted out,” he says.
Greiner also stresses the importance of designing for recycling and knowing which types of sleeves, adhesives, and inks to avoid because they will contaminate the recycling stream. “Every designer today should be familiar with the guidelines promoted by the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers,” he advises.
Because finding ways to design greener packaging should be on everyone’s mind, a resource such as Pure Strategies could be very valuable. Step by step, we know the packaging industry is working toward finding ways to design its way to a greener future.