Google has published a report sharing its learnings in switching from plastic to fibre-based material for its consumer electronics products packaging.
The ‘Plastic Free Packaging Design Guide’ contains insights the technology company gained from its design, engineering, and operations efforts in creating more sustainable packaging for hardware devices, including the Pixel suite of smartphones.
Google has shared its design guide for free in the ‘hope our design suggestions will accelerate progress for others with similar sustainability ambitions’. The company wants its consumer electronics packaging to be 100% plastic-free by 2025.
The report acknowledges that ‘plastic isn’t an inherently unsustainable material’ which has ‘actually revolutionised the packaging industry’.
Nonetheless, its ‘ubiquity’ in complex packaging has resulted in a ‘high volume of mixed materials waste that is difficult to recycle’, the report reads.
“Consumer confusion around packaging recyclability is widespread and often results in improper disposal,” the report continues. “Large volumes of plastic packaging often end up in landfills, waterways, and oceans harming ecosystems and wildlife as it slowly degrades into microplastics. It's a significant threat to the environment and ultimately our health. The plastic pollution crisis demands a fundamental shift in how we design, produce, use and dispose of plastic. It’s a major challenge, but one that can be addressed.”
The report focusses on replacing laminated PP film, shrink wrap, thermoformed PET trays, as well as closure labels, tapes, hang tabs, and protective product wraps. Inks and adhesives are excluded from the definition of 'plastic'.
Recyclability concerns are at the heart of Google’s decision to replace plastic with fibre-based materials. The company said it replaced PP laminations because they are disruptive to paper recycling streams, for example.
Shrink wrap, meanwhile, is ‘difficult to effectively separate from other materials in recycling systems, offers limited value for recyclers, and ultimately has a high chance of landfill disposal’. To replace shrink wrap, Google made several key packaging design changes to maintain product protection, tamper-evidence, and a premium aesthetic without compromising sustainability goals.
As for thermoformed PET trays, the company said they ‘have their merits’, but ‘found that moulded fibber offers comparable protection with the added benefits of recyclability and a more natural aesthetic’.
Google joins many other brands replacing plastic with fibre-based materials in their packaging.
Whilst plastic pollution has heightened consumers’ concerns with the material’s sustainability credentials, the plastics industry has been calling for ‘fact-based decision-making’. Associations including the Germany-based IK cite independent studies showing that, in many cases, replacing plastic with alternatives results in worse greenhouse gas emissions, for example.
Other critics point out that the packaging pollution problem cannot be solved by switching between single-use materials, but rather by focusing on reduce and reuse initiatives.