Sustainable Packaging
Packaging has a key role to play in helping society live more sustainably. It is a crucial part of the system for delivering products from their point of production to their point of consumption. We already have policies on Sustainable Production and Consumption. The link between production and consumption is distribution, and packaging's role in Sustainable Distribution is vital.
What Does This Mean?
For packaging, Sustainable Distribution means: -
- optimising the use of material, water and energy
- minimising waste from both product and used packaging
- maximising recovery of value from waste as material, energy or compost
To achieve this, packaging has to be designed taking into account its entire lifecycle and the characteristics of the product, the supply chain and the needs of consumers.

Looking at packaging in isolation ignores the 'big picture' requirements of sustainability. We need to look beyond narrow considerations such as packaging waste and recycling to consider all of the aspects including product wastage, water consumption, energy use and transport impacts.
