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A recent article was sent out by State Farm Insurance.  It was titled, “11 Tips for an Eco-Friendly Holiday.”  It stated an amazing, yet alarming statistic from the Environmental Protection Agency that between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, the amount of U.S. household waste increases 25 percent (1 million tons).

What they said…
The article by State Farm covered a variety of areas to be more eco-friendly, from replanting your Christmas tree, to giving away your left-overs (my favorite).  The suggestion that got my attention was #6, “Pay Attention To Packaging- Try to purchase gifts with the least amount of packaging.”

Plain and simple
Is it just this simple?  The way to be more eco-friendly is to just buy smaller packaging?  Is this even good advice?  Although we know that there is much more than size that makes packaging eco-friendly, none of that was discussed.  Either way, it is good to note what the message was that was communicated.  We need to be aware of the messages that are being sent by those not in the industry that may influence the consumers purchasing decisions.

Capitalize
How do you get the attention of those who want to be more eco-friendly by what they purchase?  The answer is through communicating this with your packaging.  Although size of packaging is one area, consumers are looking for those companies who communicate through their look, verbiage, or graphics, etc. that they are concerned about the environment.

Going forward
This statistic is good for us to know and should push us to create more eco-friendly packaging designs. We need to be aware corporately and personally on what we are doing that contributes to the increased levels of waste, and make changes where it makes sense.

Need Help?
The environment is a serious issue.  My advice would be to make yourself aware of ways that you can improve your product’s packaging to be more sustainable.  If you need help, there are many manufacturers that stay current on new materials and process that can help.  Whether you contact me or someone else…doesn’t matter, just make the effort and do your part to help the environment.

Read State Farms full article here.

For more information on creating Eco-Friendly packaging designs, contact Brian Pankratz at Mercury Plastics, Inc., bpankratz@mercuryplasticsinc.com.