5 Best Practices for Eco-Friendly Food Packaging

Environmentally friendly packaging utilizes high-quality, sustainable materials for food product containment. By adopting green packaging options, we contribute to environmental protection by decreasing our carbon footprints. These packaging solutions are engineered to minimize food waste through enhanced preservation, simultaneously ensuring the safety of the food.

Since most customers are increasingly embracing sustainability, adopting green food packaging can help attract them, resulting in more sales. Outlined below are five best practices for eco-friendly food packaging.

1.   Use biodegradable food packaging

Biodegradable packaging is any packaging that disintegrates and decomposes naturally, reducing overall waste in the food industry. Natural fibers from renewable organic sources are used to manufacture the materials. This translates to less plastic being produced from petroleum-based products. Using more plant-based plastics and natural fibers in your packaging safeguards crude oil resources. Using bioplastic packaging solutions rather than traditional card and paper results in significant weight savings, reducing transport costs.

The circular economy leverages biodegradable food packaging waste as compost to increase soil nutrients and enhance farming and food production. This green packaging option comes in handy when preventing poor food safety by offering a safe, healthy solution for all food products and food types.

2.   Ensure less packaging

Regardless of whether your food packaging is produced from agricultural waste, fossil fuels, or any other materials, less packaging translates to more sustainability. Reducing packaging means less requirement for solid waste systems for collecting and sorting packaging before it’s recycled, incinerated, reused, composted, or used to produce energy.

It’s essential to minimize packaging without raising food waste since the environmental effect of growing, harvesting, processing, and transporting food often exceeds the packaging’s environmental impact. Food companies can minimize packaging and attain sustainability goals using either of the following processes:

• Thinning package walls
• Rightsizing or turning packaging into optimum sizes

Also, less packaging results in less waste.

3.   Leverage bioplastics

Plastic pollution is among the most significant environmental challenges whose effects on wildlife and the planet’s ecosystem can be devastating. It is caused by improper disposal and excessive use of plastic packaging for various uses, including food packaging. Widespread plastic use in daily packaging has resulted in a rise in plastic waste in the environment. This results in dangerous effects like:

• Environmental damage
• Harm to wildlife
• Economic costs
• Human health threats

Plastic pollution also leads to climate change via greenhouse gas release during disposal and production. Bioplastics are a potential solution for this problem because they’re manufactured from renewable sources like vegetable oils/ fats and corn starch, and their greenhouse gas emissions are lower than those of traditional plastics. Bioplastic packaging solutions are versatile, strong, and durable. Some are meant to be biodegradable, minimizing their effect on climate change.

4.   Leverage corrugated food packaging

Corrugated food packaging is a more sustainable packaging option than traditional packaging alternatives. The primary ecological benefit of corrugated boxes is that they’re produced from a significant percentage of recycled paper and can be recycled after use. Most of these packaging solutions are made without bleaches or dyes, meaning users can dispose of them more sustainably than those with contaminants. Corrugated packaging is not only renewable and recyclable but can be reused as is.

5.   Use digital printing

Unlike offset printing, digital printing for food packaging is more eco-friendly because it uses less ink and doesn’t involve plate use. This allows for customized printing and short run that prevents waste and raises efficiency.

Endnote

Sustainable packaging is key to safeguarding the environment and promoting food safety. Consider implementing these best practices for eco-friendly food packaging.