Sustainability in packaging is a very broad term and since you are reading this on the Greener Package website, I suspect that you are either directly or indirectly involved with some kind of packaging initiative. Here is a secret: All your packaging will eventually be thrown away. That's right, a high percentage of the package will properly protect your product until it gets into the consumer’s hands -- at that point the product will be consumed and the package discarded. A small percentage of your package will end up being recycled and the cost of recycling that package will be higher than the cost to make a virgin one. What can be done?

Don't produce it in the first place. Or stated more clearly, take every packaging opportunity to reduce the packaging to the bare minimum at the design stage. Reduce complication, cube size, reduce number of colors, start with recycled materials or if possible, convert to them. Operating efficiencies will pay for it. If marketing tells you that the consumer will never go for it, think again. The conversion to these redesigned and reduced materials should become part of the marketing sustainability story. Consumers will try it at least once if it is new and well executed. How might this work?

As an example, I helped to convert a 32oz glass bottle to a 16oz aluminum can package for a well-known root beer soft drink brand. The sales force told us that they could not sell our premium category product in cans. Their point was that the consumer was used to drinking it out of a glass package. Unfortunately the P&L statement showed that we were losing money and it came down to "redesign it or cancel it" so we had to make a drastic change. Sales relented.

The 32oz glass case bill-of-materials (BOM) consisted of: 1 full shipper box with corrugate divider, 12 amber glass bottles, 12 decorated tin steel crown caps and 12 pressure sensitive labels. Also, as an added complication, the cream soda variety used flint bottles.

What about the cans? The 16 oz can case bill-of-materials was: 24 aluminum cans, 24 aluminum lids, a divider-less tray and a shrink-film protective cover.

How do these two packages compare? The 32oz glass BOM is composed of all different packaging components sourced from all over North America: glass bottles, steel caps, plastic labels, and corrugate boxes. Glass is heavy to ship (of particular concern when it's sourced from Mexico ) and takes up a lot of space. Not only that, but 32oz glass containers are exempt from recycling laws. Adding insult to injury, spotty glass production frequently caused out-of-stock issues.

By contrast, the aluminum cans are much lighter to ship empty and when filled, we could pack more cases per pallet and truck. The trays also use much less corrugate. The aluminum cans are also more likely to be recycled in the U.S. Another benefit is that aluminum cans have a better shelf appearance and the decoration on the can has more impact visually.

What was the end result? Sales went up: The sales force was able to sell the 16oz aluminum cans where glass was not allowed to sell (such as at sports arenas) and sales increased. Costs went down which turned a package that cost money for every sale to one that turned a profit on the P&L. It was a Sourcing, Marketing and Sales win.

How is this sustainable? Well, it's not, but it is better than before in many ways: less packaging was produced, less shipping costs, less weight, less out-of-stocks, and more likely to be recycled. Aluminum costs less to recycle than glass and the entire package is made of like-materials.

Don't get locked into the existing packaging structure when designing or doing a package redesign. This should just serve as an example of how rethinking a packaging material at the outset can positively impact the entire supply chain.