Earth Day Sustainable Tech Packaging Recommendations
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Happy Earth Day 54!
I receive a lot of boxes. Some offer industry-leading approaches to plastic-free packaging. Among the best are Lenovo, JLab and Infinity Labs (Harman). There are a number of ways that manufacturers can improve their packaging. The following list includes all the places where I find plastic, along with a suggestion for how to design packaging that eliminates plastic. All of the suggestions come from examples I have seen when unboxing electronics for review.
Earth Day Sustainable Tech Packaging Recommendations
| Plastic Use | Suggested Solution |
|---|---|
| Plastic tabs over contacts on earbuds. | Eliminate them. Let consumers charge on first use. |
| Plastic retail hang tags. | Paper hang tags. |
| Hard plastic film around box. | Eliminate. Replace with paper stickers. |
| Non-recyclable foam or plastic glued to paper or cardboard. | Formed paper inserts to hold the product. Do not create a mixed material problem for the consumer or the recycler. If the package is too hard to recycle, it will end up in a landfill. Another mixed materials example to avoid is fabrics glued to paper for pulls or other purposes. |
| Plastic windows to see the product in retail. | Put a good image on the cover. Reference sustainability as the reason for not using a window. |
| Plastic wrapping around the product inside the packaging. | Use a recyclable material instead. |
| Plastic stickers to hold a box together. | Paper stickers. |
| Adhesive plastic on smooth, glossy product surfaces. | Time to just make this practice go away. |
| Adhesive plastic on display surfaces. | Eliminate or replace with paper-based protection. |
| Non-Recyclable Plastic Blister Packing. | Ideally, eliminate and replace with paper-based inserts. If a blister pack must be used, make sure it is recyclable and includes recycle marks. |
| Plastic bags to hold components (such as cables and ear tips). | Use recyclable plastic bags. Ideally, use paper boxes or bags without any plastic. |
| Magnets in boxes. | While magnetic boxes are cool and offer a nice unboxing experience, they make recycling the boxes difficult, as the magnets should be extracted before the paper around them is recycled. It is better not to use magnets for this reason, plus magnets contain other resources that might be better applied to use cases beyond boxes destined for recycling. |
| Non-recyclable plastic boxes. | Some items still come in plastic boxes that are not labeled for recycling. They should be switched to more sustainable materials, eliminating the plastic from the retail or shipping experience. |
| Too much box. | Stop shipping USB charging cables. If they are part of a solution, such as providing cables for a multi-monitor solution, that’s fine, but most people don’t need another small USB-A to USB-C cable to charge a pair of earbuds. |
| Printing with non-soy ink. | Use environmentally friendly ink products that utilize soy and other vegetable-based inks. |
| USB Cables. | Eliminate them. Most people don’t need more USB cables to store in their drawers. |
| Plastic prong covers. | Eliminate them. I know most power supplies are OEMed, but OEMs bend to the will of their buyers. Tell them to stop making prong covers for power supplies and cords. |
More Earth Day Sustainable Tech Packaging Recommendations
Other choices that should be considered include diverting ocean-bound plastics and using more sustainable source materials like bamboo or sugar cane. Ideally, manufacturers will make their paper-based packaging out of recycled materials, further feeding the circular recycling economy. Compostable materials should also be considered whenever possible.
Buyers should also look for certifications such as FSC® or PEFC, which verify sustainability claims for forest-based products. See this article from Ecoenclose for more information on sustainable certifications. Some manufacturers, like Lenovo and Targus, use recycled materials in their products, such as recycled aluminum for laptop cases and recycled bottles for backpack materials. Targus and Poly also use recycled plastic from electronics recycling programs for items like keyboard and camera exteriors. Some of these efforts insist on local sources for the plastics, further reducing the environmental impact by minimizing materials travel.
JLab and Infinity Labs also offer recycling programs to customers. Infinity Labs elevates its program by employing a non-profit recycling partner.
Serious Insights highly encourages electronics manufacturers to collaborate on industry initiatives that drive the development of sustainable packaging. As the JLabs example above illustrates, marketing need not be a casualty of responsible materials use.
On a positive note, some companies, like TwelveSouth, protect their products with reusable fabric bags.
For more serious insights on technology strategy, click here. Read our hardware reviews here.
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