What is Sustainable Perfume Packaging?
Sustainable perfume packaging means the design of packaging which has reduced environmental impact. This covers various areas of impact from raw materials to manufacturing to transportation to end of packaging life. What does this mean in practice? Sustainable perfume packaging materials should take less resources to manufacture and use lower impact materials. This could mean recycled content or paper made from sustainably managed trees. Also we can categorise sustainable items which use up less shipping resources as more sustainable. For example, fold flat rigid boxes are a great help in saving container space and oil costs when you are shipping halfway across the world.
End of Packaging Life - Why is this Important to Sustainability?
What does end of packaging life mean? It refers to the period after we have opened and used the product , when it has fulfilled its primary purpose. This is the time when most packaging is thrown away and finds its way to the landfill. We can use reusable packaging several times before throwing away, which reduces landfill space. Other materials are good for recyclability, so we can be collect and sort them, then turn them back into new products.
On paper we can consider a perfume product as recyclable, but it is not ‘sustainable’ if nobody collects it to reuse. Sustainability in perfume packaging isn’t just about materials, rather it is a design and system issue.
What Sustainable Perfume Packaging Options are Available?
There are many different options to create sustainable perfume packaging :
- Reduced weight in the glass to reduce material usage and resources during shipping
- Using refillable materials such as glass or aluminium cans with screw necks is classed as sustainable, as it avoids the need to buy new packaging materials each time
- Using mono material closures. this is easier said than done in perfume design, as most caps contain two materials : an outer cap and a pp insert
- Using recyclable materials. Aluminium is a material which is relatively easy to recycle. For aluminium cans this is a good option, but for caps, it is more tricky. This is because aluminium caps for perfumes contain pp inserts and maybe even magnets and extra weight inside.
- Mono material spray pumps and outer packaging are very useful in cosmetic packaging to improve the recyclability of packaging. Normally spray pumps need to have metal springs and metal ball bearings inside them to function well. New options with mono materials use plastic springs and ball bearings.
- For paper boxes a variety of papers are available which are more sustainable. From papers which have been sourced from FSC certified forest areas to alternative materials such as bagasse and hemp. Recycled paper is also available, though this is not as smooth and easy to print on.
- Paper boxes also need to have special inks and laminations and foils in order to be fully biodegradable. Traditional plastic laminations on boxes may mean that a box is not possible to recycle.
- Nowadays we have more options for sustainable perfume packaging when we select a material to hold and protect a bottle. We no longer need to use a PVC tray or EVA foam inside a luxury box. Options like 5 ply recycled card used as liner or moulded pulp liners are useful tools to protect a perfume bottle in a sustainable way.
What should I Consider When Selecting Sustainable Packaging
It is very important to consider the following when selecting sustainable perfume packaging:
- Is it recyclable? Is it mono material?
- Is it Bio Degradable?
- Is it using less materials than traditional packaging of its type?
- Does the production of this material put a big strain on the environment, does it take a long time to produce the natural resources?
- Is it non toxic? Will it pollute the environment during the biodegrading process?
- Does it require a lot of power and energy to recycle this material? Many materials can be recycled such as glass. However, the amount of heat and energy we need to deploy to recycle glass is really huge.
- Are the additional decorative finishes preventing its ability to be recycled? For example, foils and laminations on paper prevent recyclability. Likewise, lacquers, foils and decorations on glass affect the ability to recycle glass.
Be Wary of Greenwashing!
Some brands are culpable of greenwashing, they pretend to be more eco friendly than they really are. So what sort of packaging design situations should we be wary of?
- Paper packaging with plastic lamination or metal foil lamination. We cannot easily separate these lamination layers from the paper underneath and therefore the packaging cannot be recycled.
- ‘Recyclable glass’ which it is only possible to recycle if it is the clear glass normally. And a lot of glass is not collected and recycled even if it is the right colour and type.
- FSC claims and ‘from responsible sources’ is not clear and specific enough to mean anything.
- PCR plastics usually only are a small percentage of the overall plastic. Plastic needs virgin material within the formulation to keep the right elasticity and properties. Too much recycled content makes it brittle and unattractive.
- Likewise, too much ‘cullet’ or ‘recycled glass’ in a bottle will spoil the qualities of a glass bottle. It will lose clarity and performance.
- Beware any product which states it is ‘eco-friendly’ without mentioning specifics.
- Sometimes a product will state that the packaging uses compostable materials, but they can only be composted in an industrial composting situation.
What Sustainable Perfume Packaging Options can Anisha International Offer?
At Anisha we are very mindful of the future of perfume packaging and want to ensure that we can offer great options to our clients to ensure that they can meet any sustainability targets they may have. We can help with the following :
- Different options of papers, laminations and foils, biodegradable inks.
- Mono material packaging options to ease recyclability
- Design of glass to ensure greater sustainability
- Supply of new design refillable packaging options
- Perfume caps made of biodegradable plastic
- Inner trays made of bagasse or recycled paper
- Outer packaging made of paper or sugar cane pulp
- Aluminium packaging
- Squeezable tubes made from various biodegradable plastics
At Anisha we are thoroughly committed to helping our partners to utilise sustainable perfume packaging. Even luxury perfume packaging can be sustainable in the right hands. For more information about how we can help you to achieve your sustainability goals, please get in touch with our team.
