Hints and Tips

Just a few small changes are all it takes for your business’ packaging to be more environmentally friendly. Here are our top-tips on how to achieve optimum performance in a sustainable way

Challenge

Provide Brathay Trust with a bag for their event event goodies that is reusable and recyclable. 

Solution

Duo UK provided Brathay Trust with a carrier bag made from 100% recycled polythene thanks to Duo UK's closed loop recycling facility. By choosing recycled material Brathay Trust avoided the use of virgin material equivalent to the embodied carbon saving of 2.621tCO2e per 1 tonne.
The bag featured a message encouraging the bag to be re-used and recycle it once it is at the end of its life. 

Find out more here

Challenge

Provide myHermes an affordable, sustainable packaging solution to achieve their commitment to creating a naturally sustainable future.

Solution

Duo UK provided myHermes with a carbon negative, branded polythene mailing bag thanks to GreenPE. GreenPE is a sustainable and carbon negative alternative material to regular fossil based polythene.
By choosing GreenPE branded mailing bags myHermes are helping save 2.78kg of CO2 per for each kg of GreenPE produced.

Find out more here

 

6 Ways Packaging Can Help Reduce Your Company's Environmental Impact

Packaging is a critical business necessity, but it doesn't have to put a strain on the earth's natural resources and can actually help improve your company's environmental performance.

Download our handy chart to find simple, tailored, solutions to improve the eco-credentials of your packaging here.

Getting sustainability wrapped up

Packaging for online orders should be functional and durable and now thanks to innovations in packaging materials it is possible to also minimise an etailer’s environmental footprint. 

Key innovations in the packaging industry are those that don’t pollute the waste stream and are easy for companies to adopt. Here are the latest innovations in sustainable packaging which will help your brand achieve its sustainability goals:

Latest innovations in sustainable packaging:

GreenPE - A sustainable alternative to oil-based polythene, created from sugar cane, can be manufactured in the same way as polythene and is 100% sustainable, 100% renewable and 100% recyclable.

Recycled PET - Made from recyclable plastics such as bottles, this PET packaging reduces a company’s carbon footprint, saves natural resources, and lessens landfill waste and the incineration of plastic.

Tyvek - A durable material that combines the physical properties of paper, film and fabric, made with 100% polythene. Used for mailing envelopes, it is water resistant and tough, and provides a longer shelf life and better appearance over time.

Bamboo - Used for packaging and containers for wrapping fashion items by brands such a menswear label Lyme Terrace, which packages products such as its bamboo fabric T-shirts in tubes of bamboo.

Source: Delivery and Returns: Are you meeting customer expectations? Drapers Sept 2016

How packaging can help to reduce environmental impact

Retailers are under increasing pressure to visibly reduce their environmental impact and packaging is often perceived as an 'easy win'. Key for a business looking to reduce the environmental impact of its business is to review the packaging they use from design to disposal. 

The business benefits of this are significant, allowing companies to prepare for the legislative changes, communicate a positive message to customers and help towards achieving environmental targets.

Read more here

Reduce landfill by sorting your waste

Segregating waste on site into separate material streams can bring huge benefits to your business including minimising costs, reducing waste to landfill and maximise the opportunities for recovery and recycling.

A simple way to make this process easy and engaging for your employees is by using different coloured sacks to identify different materials for example orange for paper and card and green for polythene.

Making your packaging returns-friendly

Including a second glue line to your mailing bag, along with a message to let you customers know that they can re-use the bag for returns, ensures the packaging gets two uses instead of one. 

The customer won’t have to buy extra mailing packaging for their returns, your product will be sent back in quality packaging (potentially avoiding damage in the post), and better still, everything ends up back at your warehouse so that it can be added to polythene waste for closed loop recycling. 

Challenge

Support JD Williams' pledge to reduce the carbon, waste and water footprint of the clothing it produces.

Solution

Together with JD Williams we created a robust cost-effective collection sack that was distributed in all outbound mail parcels. Customers were encouraged to fill with old clothes and arrange a collection by JD Williams. We worked with the brand to design a compact sack that clearly communicated user instructions, and was perfectly sized for inclusion in outbound mailing bags.  All clothes donated by the customers are given to the Triad charity.

Find out more here

Review your packaging range regularly

Product ranges change frequently; so make sure you check your packaging range still meets your needs.

A simple packaging audit will show whether you’re getting the optimum use from your current product range, see how we carry out audits here.

Just one small change to a different sized mailing bag could save a huge amount of waste, improve the presentation of your product and still mean your product reaches the customer in perfect condition.

Promote your Green Credentials

Through our research, we know consumers make informed purchasing decisions from brands that are socially responsible. Use your packaging to show your commitment to sustainability and encourage customers to recycle by telling them exactly what type of material you’ve chosen to use in your packaging. 

If you chose to make the switch to Duo’s GreenPE to reduce your carbon footprint, why not print the “I’m Green” logo to tell your customers you’ve chosen to use a 100% recyclable and sustainable packaging product?

Find out more about how GreenPE can help you achieve zero-to-landfill here

Recycling for Cash

It’s not just the type of packaging material you select that can reduce your impact on the environment. The packaging waste in your warehouses and the packaging that is used to return items to you is also vital to reducing the amount of waste your company creates.

Segregating your waste into different materials means you’ll be able to avoid waste going to landfill, and for polythene waste you could even receive a payment per tonne.

Find out more about how easy it is to start closed loop recycling in your business here.

Challenge

Reduce the amount of virgin polythene used in production of litter sacks created for Keep Britain Tidy’s ‘The Big Tidy Up’ event.

Solution

Using Duo’s closed-loop recycling process, we were able to reduce the amount of natural polythene used in the production of the litter sacks from 7 metric tonnes for every 100,000 to zero by using 100% recycled polythene, drastically reducing dependency on raw material and saving waste polythene from a life in landfill.

Find out more here

© Duo UK 2018. Duo is the trading name of Duo Plastics Ltd.

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