A new report released today by the British Plastics Federation (BPF) entitled Sustainable Design for Plastic Packaging offers a condensed version of the association’s recent sustainable design workshop.
The report describes the decision-making processes involved in developing new, sustainable plastic packaging and also includes a set of ‘principles for eco-design’.
These include tips for the industry such as ‘make designs simple’, ‘use widely recycled materials where possible’ and ‘use easily separable components’.
Participants in the workshop included representatives from across the packaging supply chain including brands, retailers, material suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, waste processors, NGOs and academics.
The resulting report is not a BPF policy document but reflects the range of views represented at the workshop. The report states that in practice, sustainable packaging design can mean designing to prioritise one or more of the following:
- Ease of recyclability
- Resource efficiency
- Inclusion of recycled content
- Reuse
- Environmentally beneficial consumer behaviour (such as portion control to prevent food waste)
Sustainable Design for Plastic Packaging is part of a range of work the BPF is doing in this area, which includes the release of PackScore, a tool for brands, retailers and designers to use at the earliest stages of packaging design, and its work with Recoup in launching a Recyclability By Design summary guide .
The full report is available at www.bpf.co.uk/ecodesign