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Eco-friendly Packaging

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The role of good packaging is to protect your products. If your packaging is doing its job, it will help you limit your impact on the environment.

We can help you with environmentally friendly packaging materials that reduce waste in your supply chain and lower your carbon emissions.

Eco-friendly packaging products that will support your sustainability goals

Packaging is an essential component in most supply chains to ensure products arrive
at their destination safely and intact. However, it is important that packaging is designed and used properly to minimise its impact on the environment.

We provide protective packaging that uses the minimum amount of material possible, is recyclable and uses recycled content where feasible, while ensuring it still provides appropriate protection.

The Right Pack

Good packaging must be carefully planned from the start to reduce waste and support sustainability.

The ideal sustainable packaging provides maximum protection with minimal use of material.

We apply the 3Rs – reduce, reuse, and recycle, as part of our approach to packaging.

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Smaller footprint

The right choice of packaging materials and JIT delivery can eliminate waste, reducing your packaging footprint and saving space.

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Less CO2

Lighter, smaller packs mean pallet optimisation, which can reduce the number of journeys you take, reduce load weight and cut fuel use and emissions.

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Half the environmental cost

Better pack design reduces damages. Each time damaged goods are replaced the carbon cost of a transaction increases.

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Less energy & materials wasted

Automation is a key productivity improvement. It reduces pack types and minimises the use of materials while increasing throughput.

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Happier customers

Most of the packaging that can deliver these supply chain benefits is fully recyclable, made from recycled material or reusable, something more and more customers are demanding.

Steps to sustainability

We know that eco-friendly packing materials can play a huge part in corporate and sustainability goals for businesses, with many looking to reduce packaging use and minimise material waste.

We can help you take your sustainability to the next level when it comes to packaging. Our approach will identify the impact packaging has on your operation and redress its impact throughout the supply chain.

If you take our Steps to Sustainability and swap to more environmentally friendly packaging, we can help you to reduce material use, shrink your carbon footprint and minimise waste across your supply chain.

Reduce CO2 with eco-friendly packaging. CO2 icon.

Step 1: Talk to us about your Sustainability Goals

We can help identify the key environmental costs in your packaging operation and help you reduce or eliminate them.

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Step 2: Identify sustainable packaging alternatives

We will recommend opportunities to reduce, reuse or recycle, and reduce material use.

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Step 3: Assess the knock-on effect of packaging

We will look at reductions in shipment weight, product damages and return rates. We’ll help you reduce your fleet (or courier) carbon emissions.

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Step 4: Illustrate and Report Savings

We’ll help you calculate and report reductions so that you can share the improvements with your customers and stakeholders. See our Packaging Optimiser tool

See the Environmental Impact Rating of our products

We know that making an informed choice about sustainability and packaging is important.

That’s why we introduced an Environmental Impact Rating (EIR) for every item we sell in our packaging catalogue. The EIR for each product shows an OPRL recycling logo (On Pack Recycling Label), the material’s recyclability category, how much recycled content the packaging materials contain and if the packaging is reusable or not.

Request a catalogue
Sustainable packaging environmental impact rating example

Macfarlane Packaging is working to protect the environment too…

As well as helping our customers make informed choices about eco-friendly packaging, Macfarlane Packaging is committed to reducing its impact on the environment too.

Some of the positive commitments to sustainability we’re making include:

  • Lowering our carbon emissions
  • Using renewable energy at all our UK sites
  • Introducing electric vehicles into our fleet
  • Cutting paper use across the Macfarlane Group
See our full Environmental, Social & Governance Commitment
macfarlane electric trucks

Our certifications, awards and standards

FSC
BRCGS
Sedex Member
Smartest energy logo
iso14001 logo

Macfarlane Packaging is a responsible business and has a number of environmental certifications and awards that will give you peace of mind we are operating, and sourcing your packaging, ethically.

Take the first step by contacting us today

Talk to us about your eco-friendly packaging

See how we can help you be more sustainable

Blogs about eco-friendly packing materials and sustainability

eco-friendly packaging

8 eco-friendly packaging tips you need to try