Tag Archives: reusable packaging

This reusable alternative to single-use packaging foresees a green future for the e-commerce sector

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What do you do with the packaging material your favorite dress has just arrived in from Amazon? Once you have received the online order, the packaging material is thrown in the trash, right? It’s a story with each one of us, especially because most of the packaging is not designed with reuse or sustainability in mind. This is why the idea of creating home delivery packaging reusable sticks with us more keenly than anything else.

Ecommerce portals have grown exponentially over the last two years, during the pandemic, because they provide consumers unparalleled options and accessibility. With the increase in online shopping, the pileup of shipping cartons and plastic packaging material is also piling up in landfills. In such a scenario, if we watch closely, packaging has a single purpose – to deliver the item safely to the consumer – and when this purpose is over, packaging has no further usage and landfill is the ultimate destination.

Designer: Simon Chantrel

Considering over 100 billion deliveries happen each year, it’s a huge pile of packaging waste that we are discussing here. Through the INFLATE – a flexible and reusable delivery package – designer Simon Chantrel presents a very viable solution to this problem. The alternative to single-purpose packaging, INFLATE is made to be reused a number of times so it doesn’t have to retire after its single journey from an eCommerce store’s warehouse to your doorstep. It can, in fact, be returned and reused for another delivery… and then another… and another!

INFLATE we presume is made from recyclable canvas or polyethylene because of its tarpaulin-like material. The renders also depict, the packaging material is flexible and it can be inflated to the size of the item it’s going to carry. The inflatable packaging can adapt to its content and once delivered, it can be deflated and rolled back. The INFLATE can then be dropped at an external collection point or a deposit location so it can be reused to limit packaging waste accumulated because of deliveries in traditional packaging.

INFLATE intends to bypass the linear economy, where packaging material is used once in the delivery process and then disposed of. It takes delivery services toward a circular packaging economy where resources are reusable and can reduce the packaging waste to ultimately make the e-commerce sector greener.

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Sustainable rice packaging becomes an artistic tissue box in afterlife

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The Srisangdao rice grows in Thailand in a controlled environment and every year only a limited quality is produced. Because of how special the rice is, the environment where it grows and how it is stored is given the utmost care making sure there are no chemicals hampering the quality. To showcase Thung Kula Ronghai’s efforts of growing this gorgeous grain, a designer reimagined the packaging as a tribute to the process with a purpose that went beyond preserving rice.

The packaging is created using chaffs, a natural waste product from husking, which very literally incorporates the process which the designers wanted to celebrate through this product. The box has simple yet meaningful art surrounding the Srisangdao rice – it is die-formed with an oversized rice grain embossed on it which is the main artistic element. The grain graphic is complemented with wave-like lines and smaller embossed design of the crop in full bloom. The designer has also burn-stamped the logo of the rice mill from the Thung Kula Ronghai region on the box. A thoughtful detail that really completes the picture is the rice inside comes in a miniature sack just like the traditional one. All these pieces put together truly bring out the different elements of the rice’s identity and lifecycle.

What makes this organic packaging more interesting is the fact that it can be used as a tissue box after it has served its purpose of storing rice. It is completely eco-friendly as well as recyclable and generates minimal production waste. To see how a simple rice packaging can completely be reimagined and redesigned to tell a story while still providing value after its main job is done is an inspiration to continue being creative.

Designer: Somchana Kangwarnjit

A sustainable takeout box to save 500 years of recycling styrofoam!

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In 2017 while I was living in California, the local government made the laws around using styrofoam (polystyrene) even more strict and all restaurants around my office stopped doing take-outs for a short while due to lack of a better alternative for the cheap boxes – just one example of how dependent we are as a society on styrofoam that we are turning a blind eye to its toxic effects. Designer Ross Dungan wants to solve this problem with a creative solution without destroying the cultural icon – the clamshell takeout box – of the Netflix generation.

Styrofoam has a 24-hour lifespan but it is formed with materials that can last for 500 years, can you imagine the landfills at the rate we consume this product? “We need to stop and think about the environmental costs of our lifestyle,” says Dungan when talking about the notoriously single-use packaging that has been adopted worldwide. The box itself is so widely recognized that is has transcended continents and languages, so Dungan’s design aims to leverage its easy recall value while delivering a stronger message on sustainable living.

The product is rightly called Leftovers and hopes to be a design that disrupts normalization of polystyrene before it can become a mass-scale direct solution to the problem, the first step is to educate. For convenience and functionality, it is also dishwasher safe and recyclable. The redesigned box has a stainless steel body that enhances its functionality as a reusable food container while also bringing attention to how one small change can reduce the amount in our trash can. This visible change on an individual level can lead to a positive change in behavior without feeling like it was a drastic turn from what the general society is used to – this makes it easier to adapt to new habits quicker.

Designer: Ross Dungan.

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This reusable protective case is egg-cellent for your next grocery haul!

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What is the biggest fear we have when buying groceries? The guy bagging them will inevitably place something on top of the eggs and the rest of your stuff will be covered in egg slime. Surely, I can’t be the only one who has experienced that, so when I saw the Egg Guardian case I got super eggcited – get it?

Now, this is a conceptual design made for a research project about sustainable food packaging but I know we all want this to come to life ASAP because it is just ‘eggcellent’! The Egg Guardian was aimed at reducing packaging waste and protecting the eggs from bad grocery packing strategies. It is designed to be made from aluminum because of the material’s recyclable qualities, durability, and ease of cleaning. It will also be created to fold into a flat sheet when not in use so that it can be carried around or stored without trouble.

I love it when a design is simple and yet has eggstraordinary (I can go on and on) impact on packaging and food waste management.

Designer: Stephanie Alexander