What are the advantages of recyclable packaging?
Consumers are interested and enlightened. Whereas in the past they were mainly price-conscious when making purchases, they now include social and ecological assessments in their purchasing decisions. You can use this as a competitive advantage with your company by choosing and developing recyclable packaging.
Recyclability: The definition
Recyclability of your packaging means that the raw materials used for the packaging are reused or processed into secondary raw materials through waste recovery (also called recycling).
The Packaging Act (VerpackG) distinguishes between recycling and reuse. Recycling occurs when the packaging was previously disposed of as waste and is subsequently reprocessed as a raw material.
In the case of reuse, the packaging is cleaned and then reused. It is therefore neither added to waste nor processed into raw materials.
Do you need to package your product?
Only a few products can actually do without their packaging. As a critical and environmentally conscious company, you have probably already noticed this. Perhaps the step to an unpackaged product has also failed for you because you cannot sufficiently protect your product without packaging.
Let's take an industrially manufactured guitar as an example. While a guitar maker who makes individual pieces can have the masterpiece picked up directly by the customer, this is not possible for you. You deliver your guitars by mail to the customer or deliver them to stores. For these unattended shipments, you need to cushion and pack your goods well to avoid damaging them on the way to their destination. Of course, guitars are not the only example of goods that absolutely need packaging.
So, if your company produces or distributes goods that cannot do without packaging, you should pay attention to the recyclability of your packaging and be sure to indicate this characteristic on the packaging. Just as you pass on product information with your packaging.
So use the necessary evil to show the customer how he can participate in environmental protection in the best possible way despite the packaging.
Three tips on how to draw attention to the recyclability of your packaging
Working out loud this principle of cooperation you should bring to life with your consumers. Make the recyclability of your packaging easily noticeable. Let your consumers share and learn from your knowledge of packaging recycling.
- Include recycled content in your packaging design.
- Demonstrate the proper use of your packaging on your social media channels, website and in your newsletters.
- Color-code different types of materials from each other to make consumers aware of the need to separate materials
KEEP AN EYE ON THE ZSVR MINIMUM STANDARDS
The ZSVR's "Minimum Standard for Measuring the Recyclability of Packaging" provides information on the characteristics a package must have in order to be considered recyclable.
The minimum standard also tells you which materials are particularly easy to take into the recycling loop after use as packaging material and which are not.
THREE PROPERTIES THAT YOUR PACKAGING MUST MEET
When choosing your packaging, keep in mind that even the absence of one of the following three criteria does not make the packaging fully recyclable.
Depending on the degree of deviation, it will be classified as "conditionally recyclable" or "non-recyclable".
- The packaging must be free of substances that could prevent recycling or whose recycling would have adverse effects on the environment.
- A prerequisite for the recycling of packaging is the existence of a sorting and recovery infrastructure that ensures that individual components can be recovered sorted by material.
- If your packaging consists of different components of different materials, all packaging components must be sortable or at least separable from each other.
Our zmart customer service team will be happy to advise you on any questions you may have regarding the recyclability of your packaging.
Save on packaging fees with recyclable packaging
Whether paper, plastic or metal. At zmart, you save money with recyclable packaging.
So you'll be rewarded twice for your commitment to environmental protection. Firstly, through the prospect of higher sales among buyers, and secondly, through lower license fees.
CTA: Use our customer service to get answers to your questions about recyclable packaging.
CONCLUSION: RECYCLABLE PACKAGING IS A SELLING POINT
As a company, it is important that you retain your customers over the long term and increase your profits by reducing costs and increasing sales.
With recyclable packaging, you lay the groundwork for this on three levels.
You stand out as an environmentally conscious market player and thus increase the possibility for long-term customer loyalty. You create additional purchasing arguments, especially for homogeneous products, and have the opportunity to increase sales. Last but not least, you benefit from lower royalties for your packaging.
RECYCLABILITY AS A SALES ARGUMENT
Make your customers aware of the recyclability of your packaging at every opportunity. Use the packaging itself, influencers, videos and your usual advertising channels to do this.
THE MINIMUM STANDARD IS THE MEASURE OF ALL THINGS.
The Central Packaging Register Office has developed a "Minimum standard for measuring the recyclability of packaging". This will help you make your packaging recyclable.
THE NUMBER THREE IS THE KEY TO RECYCLABILITY
Indispensable for your packaging to be recyclable is the fulfillment of all three of the following points:
No material in the packaging must pose a hazard to the environment or make the packaging unfit for recycling.
All components must be sortable by material type.
Packaging components of different material types must be separable from each other.