Circular Products and Packaging

Circularity economy strategies include phasing out waste and pollution, keeping materials in use, ensuring human health and safety, and regenerating natural systems. The specific focus across these areas may vary depending on the nature of the company’s business and value chain.

Sustainable packaging is a common area of work for companies. Compliance efforts for extended producer responsibility (EPR) laws are foundational actions for companies, however, most companies get more business value by proactively ensuring that packaging is reusable, recyclable, or compostable and also uses materials efficiently and are responsibly sourced.

The ingredients selected for products or materials used in manufacturing and packaging should be the safest options available, avoiding chemicals of concern and using safer alternatives. This means considering the impact ingredients and materials have on environmental and human health. This covers intentional use as well as by-products and contaminants. A common approach companies use to manage sustainable chemistry is with a restricted chemicals list (RSL) and a safer substitution approach. The Chemical Footprint Project is a useful framework for more information.

It is important for companies to understand the environmental and social impacts associated with products to identify the priorities to focus on improving. Tools such as life cycle assessment (LCA) can help with this. Then, companies integrate product sustainability and circularity metrics into their development processes to evaluate and ensure progress.