Packaging plays a critical role in protecting products, ensuring they reach consumers and customers in optimal condition. It shields items from damage, contamination, and environmental factors, preserving their quality and value. For fragile or perishable goods, effective packaging prevents waste caused by spoilage or breakage during transport and storage. Well-designed packaging can also enhance consumer confidence by providing tamper evidence and showcasing product reliability. Poor packaging can lead not only to product damage but to reputational harm. Contamination or spoilage can result in product recalls, undermining consumer confidence and imposing significant costs on the provider.
BALANCING PROTECTION WITH ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY
However, waste reduction is an urgent issue. Packaging can take a lot of energy, water and other natural resources to create and, improperly discarded, can pollute our environment. It’s critical then that the necessity for effective packaging be balanced with efforts to reduce waste and associated environmental harm.
Smart packaging solutions do exactly this by providing the essential protection needed for the product, without using unnecessary materials. “Thoughtful packaging is about finding the sweet spot: robust enough to protect the product yet designed with sustainability in mind. It’s about reducing waste without compromising quality or safety,” says Bunzl Category Manager Voan Biclar.
Pristine hand towels are an excellent example. The product itself is FSC-certified (FSC®-C117930) and is designed for extra absorbency and high wet strength, reducing consumption. Protected by a strong cardboard carton with no unnecessary inner packaging, the towels are bundled into a paper product sleeve to allow hygienic handling. Toilet rolls are thoughtfully packaged to balance hygiene and sustainability, using plastic wrapping only where necessary to shield from dampness. Each roll is individually wrapped in recyclable paper, maintaining hygiene while reducing the need for excess plastic.
These solutions are helping to prioritise waste reduction while still fulfilling the demand for protection and quality.
Felicity Kelly, Head of Sustainability
SMART PACKAGING SOLUTIONS FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
“We’re seeing further innovations in packaging that reduce plastic use through clever design and by leveraging sustainable materials,” says Felicity Kelly, Head of Sustainability at Bunzl. “These solutions are helping to prioritise waste reduction while still fulfilling the demand for protection and quality.” Facial tissues, for example, are packaged in a strong cardboard inner box to protect in transport and storage, but instead of the plastic collar, Pristine uses a paper lip to seal the box to keep the tissues clean from contamination.
“It might seem like a small change,” says Biclar, “but it will eliminate around 1200kg of plastic waste from tissue boxes across Australia and New Zealand every year.”
Also making a difference in packaging is a design that considers how robust the product itself is. “Products like jumbo toilet rolls and centrefeed towels are pretty sturdy,” explains Biclar. “They’re still packed in cartons for delivery, but with efficient configuration, it’s possible to reduce movement in transport and thus reduce the need for more protective layers. It’s this kind of holistic approach to the lifecycle of the product that makes it possible to further refine packaging needs.”
