Cellulose packaging

Cellulose packaging is made from natural sources like hemp, wood, and cotton. The material is biodegradable and compostable, making it a sustainable alternative to plastic.

Food brands, in particular, prefer cellulose packaging because of its moisture-resistant properties.

You can see it in the wild at the Kitwe Food Farmers Market, where vendors selling microgreens are using cellulose film to package their products.

EDIBLE FILMS

Take one moment to imagine. Imagine walking around the grocery store and seeing food items wrapped in edible skin. Imagine eating your wrapped fruit, chocolate bar, or ice cream right off the shelf, packaging included. Well, your imagination might soon be a reality with the invention of edible films.

Different natural products can be used to create edible packaging, but the most effective and widely used is chitosan. Chitosan is a sugar that’s made from the chitin shells of shrimp and other crustaceans. This makes chitosan one of the most abundant biopolymers after cellulose.

More appropriate to the food industry, edible films provide a sustainable packaging alternative for wrapping food items. This packaging has the potential to make food storage, preparation, and of course, transportation simpler. Edible films have the potential to curb food and packaging waste, while also reducing chemical leaching from plastic coats.

Ritual

The vitamin supplements company Ritual serves as a great example of a business that uses recycled packaging (with plant-based ink to boot). Earlier this year, Ritual switched to a mailer that’s made exclusively from recycled newsprint and fibers.

Ritual’s eco-friendly efforts extend to its bottles and caps. Its vitamin bottles are made from repurposed plastic and the caps are sourced from post-industrial resin (i.e., scraps from the manufacturing process).

Recycled packaging

Environmentally friendly packaging materials can also come in the form of recycled packaging. These are items that give a second life to plastics that are already in circulation.

By using recycled materials, you're able to conserve natural resources, reduce the amount of waste in landfills, and prevent pollution by limiting the need to collect raw materials.

We can see recycled packaging in action at Handzy Shop + Studio, which uses noissue Recycled Mailers. Aside from being made from recycled plastics, they contain another adhesive strip so the mailers can be resued once more.

Compostable packaging

Compostable refers to the ability of a material to naturally decompose back into the earth, ideally without leaving any toxic residue. Compostable packaging materials are usually made from plant-based materials (like corn, sugar cane, or bamboo) and/or bio-poly mailers.

More Info: good earth packaging box