If you’re looking for an eco-friendly, affordable, and fast packaging solution that makes an impact, consider switching to digital packaging! With huge pressure to become sustainable and reduce waste, more customers than ever demand that companies keep environmental concerns in mind throughout their businesses1. Packaging specifically is a huge problem when it comes to sustainability, as it’s traditionally single-use and often contains non-recyclable and non-biodegradable plastics that often end up sitting in landfill or in the ocean after use2.
Here at Ruddocks, we offer digital packaging solutions that cut packaging waste and ensure we can all move towards our sustainability goals, without compromising when it comes to quality or customer satisfaction. In this article, we explain the problems of packaging and what we are doing to address this.
Why is traditional packaging a problem?
Packaging as a whole and especially food packaging can be extremely wasteful. Although it is a fantastic human invention that is lightweight, inexpensive, helps to protect products during transportation and storage and helps keep them fresh, there’s another side to the story.
1. Many packaging items are made of plastic which is not biodegradable and can take hundreds or even thousands of years to break down. The majority isn’t recycled and so ends up thrown away and harming local wildlife or marine life. In fact, plastic packaging is one of the biggest causes of plastic pollution3.
2. As we mentioned above, packaging is designed to be single-use and therefore it is inherently wasteful.
3. Traditional printing uses inks, materials and technology that can be wasteful, inefficient and create harmful emissions that pollute the air, water, and land.
With sustainability at the forefront of our minds, we have taken steps to address these issues and offer digital packaging solutions that are more sustainable, more efficient and produce a finished product that our customers can be proud of.
What is digital packaging?
Digital packaging uses digital printing technology to make the process faster and more eco-friendly. Because there’s no minimum order, we can create packaging for a variety of requirements without causing unnecessary waste. Not only is less ink and paper used, but design changes are also made easier. This alone can cut the carbon footprint of the printing process by up to 80%.
If used with eco-friendly oil-free or waterless inks and printed on the most sustainable, biodegradable, organic or compostable materials, you can further reduce your business’s impact on the environment and help protect the planet for generations to come. Research by the International Data Corporation shows that digital printing can reduce supply chain waste by up to 26% and cut the carbon footprint by 65 to 80%4.
Wrapping up
Digital printing is an innovative and highly sustainable way to create branded packaging for your products, whilst reducing your impact on the environment. When used with recyclable, biodegradable, or eco-friendly materials, you can significantly reduce your carbon footprint and the waste your business generates. As a result, digital packaging can put you ahead of competitors, boost your brand image and even increase your sales!
Sources:
1. Consumers Expect Brands to Address Climate Change - WSJ
2. Plans unveiled to ban single-use plastics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
By following our process we ensure that we deliver packaging solutions that work from a creative, production and practical point of view, so if you have an upcoming project that you would like to discuss, then please get in contact with Ruddocks today.