Packaged in eco-trend: how to pack goods for shipping without harming the environment?

These days we are buying online increasingly often. Customers' shopping habits force stores to decide what to use for packaging the goods that are dispatched worldwide. Most of them, for economic reasons, tend to choose plastic: bubble wrap, stretch foil, tape, etc. But it turns out that there are better, eco-friendly solutions. What are they? We would like to show you that in our article.

E-commerce is the driving force of the trade

Today’s sales are based on e-commerce. This is evidenced by data, for example compiled on the Statista website. In 2020, e-commerce retail sales worldwide amounted to $ 4.28 trillion. E-sales revenues are forecast to rise to $ 5.4 trillion in 2022. Online shopping is one of the most popular online activities around the world, and Turkey is currently the largest e-commerce market¹.

Other statistics relating to business worldwide indicate that in 2021 more than 2 billion people are expected to use online trading².

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This trend is also visible at the level of individual countries. This is shown by the records collected by Gemius in the report “E-commerce in Poland 2020”.

It shows that as much as 73 percent of the surveyed Poles are e-consumers. This value increased by 11 percentage points, compared to the previous year.

Sending the eco-message to the world

The growing significance of the online trading sector has generated new challenges, especially at the eco level. Since almost every product can be ordered by mail today, every smallest parcel needs to be packaged somehow, as well. And each packaging means potential waste. That is why the most environmentally conscious companies today focus on eco solutions, such as:

recycled cardboard boxes,
recycled paper filling (alternative to bubble wrap),
grey paper tape (instead of PVC foil),
brown paper envelopes and bags,
jute ribbons (instead of stiff plastic hoops),
ecological glues made of water-activated starch.

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Polystyrene beads (or packing peanuts) are an interesting idea. Resembling corn puffs, these small elements are designed to fill and secure the shipment during transport. However, if you immerse them in water, they are dissolved almost immediately.

Changes forced by consumers

It is consumers who are driving the changes on the market, and this also applies to the e-commerce sector. According to the Green Generation 2020 report, as much as 80 percent of Internet users notice unecological habits among mail order suppliers. And 60 percent of the surveyed people are definitely in favour of implementing good environmental practices in terms of packing parcels.

Companies, listening to the needs of their target group, more and more often offer their customers a choice. When completing your order, by selecting the delivery method, you can choose the facility of organic packaging. Even if they have to pay extra for such a service, consumers often select this option.

The response to these new needs is also an interesting type of content on YouTube, in which entrepreneurs show viewers what their eco-ways of packaging items for shipping are. Movies of this type sometimes have tens of thousands (or more) views, which proves that such topics are in demand. You can find sample videos HERE and HERE.

Strategies for better packaging of goods for shipping

Do you want your shipping business to be more eco-friendly? Below, in a few points, we present the strategy for more reasonable packaging of goods on the e-commerce market.

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Avoid excess. Each of us must be familiar with a situation when we ordered a really small item, and it came in a gigantic package, completely inadequate to its contents. Unfortunately, this is a common situation as there are simply too few cardboard boxes with different dimensions available in the warehouse. This is the result of contracts with carriers who have price lists correlated with the sizes of packages, and packing in packages with other dimensions simply does not pay off. Therefore, employees have only a limited number of them at their disposal, which forces them to make such choices. To avoid wasting resources and reduce shipping costs, make sure the packaging you have comes in different shapes and sizes (e.g. micro, mini, medium, large and XXL).
Minimise plastic. Replace stretch with paper or cellulose fibre. Swap a regular packing tape with a paper tape, with glue of natural origin. Replace cardboard boxes covered with non-recyclable foil with those that can be easily segregated. Bubble wrap filling? Use packing peanuts (polystyrene beads) instead. Try to find as many environmentally friendly alternatives as possible. It may even turn out that they are cheaper than the solutions used so far.
Choose packaging made from renewable raw materials. If you want your products to stand out graphically and look attractive, you don't have to limit your choice to gray paper and ordinary cardboard boxes only. But there are also biodegradable packages, for example those supplied by SILBO. They decompose quickly, and in the printing process, ecological water-based inks are used. Perfect colour reproduction, highquality confirmed by certificates, eco- friendliness - all of the above characterise our packaging. So if you are looking for interesting solutions for your e-commerce business, why not contact us?
Implement reusable solutions. Use durable packaging that can be reused. You can encourage your customers to send them back exactly like they send back the purchased items. Offer a ready package return form to be sent at the post office or via the parcel locker and encourage such practices by offering a discount on future purchases. Zalando, an internet giant, came up with a similar solution at the end of 2019. They tested ecological packaging intended to be sent back from their customers. The customers responded to it enthusiastically³.