Estate planning for a package might seem a little macabre, but it’s becoming an evermore important aspect of packaging choice in our industry.

Estate planning for a package might seem a little macabre, but it’s becoming an evermore important aspect of packaging choice in our industry. As you know, we (the global ‘we’) are still trying to sort out the right way to tackle sustainability as it relates to packaging. So far, the debate seems to be moving in the direction of the recycling advocates who are pushing for greater circularity in our economy as a way to reduce waste, but there is resistance from those that say emissions are the main culprit and need to be curtailed. Compostability is valued, as I saw from my vacation this week in California- the land without plastic straws- but mostly as a necessary evil for items or packages that cannot be reused; as industrial composting is not widely accessible or understood.

As I will soon have printed on T-shirts: “Recyclable if possible, Compostable if necessary”.

Below is a Q&A regarding packaging design, printed by Packaging Digest ahead of an industry conference that took place this week organized by the Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC).

How to plan for your package’s funeral

Burial, cremation or reincarnation? What choice will you make for your package? How you design your packaging at its birth often determines its fate at the end of its life.

Brent Lindberg, founder of design agency Fuseneo Inc., will share his tips next week with attendees of SPC Impact 2019 (Apr. 1-4, Seattle, WA), the leading sustainable packaging conference organized by the professionals at the Sustainable Packaging Coalition. Taking place on Tues., Apr. 2, his three-hour hands-on Idea Lab will explore packaging designs for recyclability or responsible disposal.

Lindberg explains a few things here, including why it’s important to take time up front to consider end of life. ... 


Read the full Q&A here

 

Have a great weekend,

-Simon

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