5. Recyclability

Reducing plastic might not feel like a short-term option for your business. If plastic is still necessary, designing for recyclability is a great step forward. Designing for recyclability will inherently reduce your low value, hard to recycle plastics - as these items cannot typically be recycled, or are downcycled if so.

The more recyclable your packaging is, the higher chance it will not end up in landfills, incinerators, or the environment. Recyclability can both increase the supply of materials for recycling (increasing circularity) and reduce plastic waste pollution.

With plastic, typically it is more rigid plastics that have higher recyclability. PET, for example, is highly recyclable in many countries. Also, making sure that your packaging is made from just one type of plastic, instead of multiple polymers or multi-layered plastic, will help make it more recyclable.

You may have heard about Sprite ditching its ‘iconic’ green bottles in favor of transparent plastic to increase their recyclability? If plastic is dyed, it can’t easily be turned back into clear plastic, so it’s less valuable for the overall market. With clear plastic more likely to be used as ‘post-consumer recycled’ (PCR) plastic, there’s a higher market value in its second life. Designing for recyclability can be done with other materials too:

• Glass: Glass is highly recyclable, but has its downside due to its heavier weight, higher price and the energy required to recycle the material.
• Paper: Most paper or cardboard is recyclable or compostable across the US, but it can’t be recycled if it is covered in a heavy plastic film or tape - as some cardboard beverage containers tend to be.
• Metal: Metals, such as aluminum, are highly recyclable. Aluminum cans have a thin layer of plastic lining to protect beverages, but this doesn’t affect recyclability – some estimates say 75% of aluminum that’s ever been mined is still in use today. It takes high energy levels to mine aluminum, and so it is very important that it is recycled for the material to be an effective environmental choice.

If recyclability is something you can explore, here are some resources to guide businesses on the recyclability of their packaging: The Association of Plastic Recyclers, the How2Recycle Guide to Recyclability by Greenblue, and the “Golden Design Rules of Recyclability” for plastic packaging by Canada’s Plastic Pact. These resources dive deep into design choices that businesses can make in order to ensure the recyclability of their packaging. Following these guidelines might be the difference between your packaging ending up at a Material Recovery Facility with another chance at useful life, or ending up in a landfill or the natural environment.