Many businesses are looking for suppliers to produce innovative packaging solutions that can help boost sustainability as well as improve the methods in which their goods are transported.

In today's economy, it is not simple enough to get products to where they need to be. Many companies are looking to save money by reducing the amount of extraneous waste that they produce. This is true of all levels of the supply chain, from production to shipping. For this reason, businesses are searching for ways to improve how they transport their goods so as to become more sustainable.

Making the most of your packaging resources

Packaging World examines the state of packaging in the healthcare industry, noting that products are changing, while at the same time distributors are looking to save money and reduce their environmental impact. Despite these goals, the news source explains, many of the distributors do not have the time to devise these strategies themselves so they are looking to the suppliers to come up with these ideas.

Sustainability is not solely about being able to make more environmentally friendly shipping products, it's about being able to do so with as little waste as possible, thus making the most of the company's fiscal resources. This means that suppliers need to more closely examine the raw materials they are using, how much of the product is used, and how effectively the goods are stored. Fortunately, as technology develops in various industries so do packaging solutions.

Recyclable packaging

One of the biggest places in which sustainability can be improved in the packaging of products is in their ability to be recycled. Once a product has been removed from the container in which it was shipped, there is little further use for the container. For this reason it is important to be able to either reuse or recycle the package so as to reduce waste and improve sustainability.

In a separate report, Packaging World examines the solutions that are being employed by a cosmetics company. It has been able to develop packaging that is sustainable throughout its lifespan, by having the packaging be re-purposed into new packaging material for the products. This works to eliminate the amount of product that goes into landfill and reduces the material costs of the company.

In today's economy, it is not simple enough to get products to where they need to be. Many companies are looking to save money by reducing the amount of extraneous waste that they produce.

Sustainable Plant examines another company that has been able to reduce the amount of shrink wrap that is uses by 436 miles, decreasing the volumes of the material that went to waste. Each product that is transported has unique requirements, for which shrink wrap can be necessary. But in this instance, the company needed to transport rack fixtures for lights that it was able to replace with rack tarps that could be reused and, as an added bonus, actually made for easier unpacking.

There are plenty of solutions that can make packaging more sustainable for companies, the key is in being able to identify where they can be found. In some instances, certain packaging processes cannot be avoided, but perhaps the efficiency in which they are done can be, while in others the process could be replaced by different materials. For this reason it is important to identify where solutions can be made.