Leader of the pack: packaging solutions for the 21st Century

Recycled, upcycled or downcycled? Corn-based or palm-fiber husk? Home compostable or industrially compostable?

All you want are new deli trays. Yet, when considering packaging possibilities, it's easy to feel overwhelmed by the options and that alphabet soup of acronyms—from OCC (old corrugated containers) to WCC (waxed corrugated containers) and beyond.

In a 2007 joint survey by nonprofit group Sustainable Packaging Coalition and trade magazine Packaging Digest, 73 percent of 1,255 packaging-based respondents reported an increased emphasis on sustainable packaging, creating new possibilities for retailers and consumers.

Consider local variables
One of the first mistakes is to assume that one best packaging solution exists— a magic package that solves all concerns about manufacturing and waste, says Wendy Jedlicka of Jedlicka Design, a faculty member at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design's Sustainable Design Certificate Program and author of Packaging Sustainability: Tools, Systems and Strategies for Innovative Package Design (Wiley, 2008).

Confused by all this terminology? Find terms, definitions and more at Sustainability- dictionary.com.

Jedlicka says there's no one best package for either products or consumables, despite buzzwords. In order to discover the least-harmful option, consider local variables. As Jedlicka points out, a food product (and package) shipped to a destination without recycling will weigh differently on the planet than one in which most plastics are recycled. In areas without recycling, a retailer might choose home-compostable packaging, encourage consumers to reuse containers or seek other alternatives.

"You really have to understand the market that it's going to be distributed in, and weigh the thing out," she says. "Sustainability is so much more than looking at the materials. You also need to consider energy use and the supply chain."

For example, think about milk. Jedlicka points out that aseptic milk cartons reduce the need for refrigeration (cutting energy costs) and increase the amounts able to fit onto a pallet (decreasing food miles, or the distance that a product travels from producer to consumer). Milk in aseptic cartons takes longer to go bad on either store or consumer shelves, thereby reducing waste.

As another alternative, Washington's PCC Natural Markets offers milk in glass jars. Customers pay a deposit fee when they buy the milk, and the fee is refunded when they return the empty jar. The jar is then reused by the local milk distributor, beginning another closed-loop cycle.