Sustainability 101 is a weblog collection that you could flip to for details about completely different environmental phrases that will come up at work, throughout discussions with pals, and even at your loved ones gatherings.
Whether or not we’re buying grocery gadgets wrapped in plastic or receiving a house cargo packed in polystyrene peanuts, packaging is a part of our on a regular basis lives. Nonetheless, a lot of it turns into waste after one use.
Based on the Organisation for Financial Co-operation and Improvement (OECD), 31% of plastics produced are for packaging – typically single-use and with a mean six-month lifespan. Plastic is broadly used as an efficient packaging materials, however as waste within the setting, it will possibly have a damaging affect.
Analysis printed within the November 16, 2024, Journal of Hazardous Supplies Advances exhibits that that in landfills, plastic can emit toxins and develop into a supply of greenhouse gases (GHGs), and in oceans, it will possibly break down into microparticles that might disrupt meals chains and contribute to quite a lot of well being problems.
Another non-recyclable or non-compostable packaging gadgets embrace foam, aluminum foil with meals residue, and fused parts resembling cardboard hooked up to foam that can’t be simply separated for recycling.
How does this affect shoppers’ selections? A 2025 McKinsey & Firm survey reviews that 77 % of respondents contemplate recyclable packaging “extraordinarily essential” or “essential,” whereas 62 % responded the identical about packaging produced from recycled supplies.
Packaging sustainability: Supplies matter
In a round financial system, industries regulate their processes to allow the reuse and regeneration of supplies. The purpose is to make merchandise with the smallest environmental affect utilizing the fewest sources doable.
By specializing in supplies, firms could make their product containers and parts extra sustainable, resembling berry growers utilizing compostable trays or cosmetics producers utilizing refillable containers for post-purchase reuse.
Another methods embrace:
- Lowering or eliminating pointless parts
- Utilizing QR codes to digitize data vs. printed supplies
- Incentivizing shopper recycling with rewards or by offering clear directions on easy methods to recycle
Utilizing these alternate options can assist scale back packaging waste whereas aligning with buyer values. It additionally can assist scale back packaging prices, optimize area effectivity, and construct in regulatory compliance.
How Cisco’s technique has advanced to assume “contained in the field”
For Cisco, packaging sustainability is the follow of minimizing waste by decreasing or eradicating sure supplies — resembling single-use plastic luggage and foam — and changing them with various supplies which can be renewable, recyclable, or each.
In 2019, Cisco developed a set of Round Design Ideas for its merchandise throughout 5 classes — one in every of which is packaging and equipment. Product groups and packaging engineers in our Provide Chain Operation workforce collaborate on the outset of the design part to craft a package deal that gives the optimum stability of product safety and circularity. A lot of our merchandise now incorporate recyclable fiber-based cushions like FiberFlute®, paper tube cushions, and molded pulp to exchange foam. By means of Cisco’s No Paper Initiative, QR codes for digital product data keep away from materials use altogether.
instance is the Cisco Ceiling Microphone Professional package deal, which is absolutely fiber primarily based. As an alternative of plastic trays, we opted for unbleached molded pulp-fiber trays which can be sturdy sufficient to cushion the delicate unit, but mild sufficient for cost-effective transport. We additionally swapped out the traditional single-use plastic bag with a custom-fit paper sleeve that absolutely encases the unit and shields it from mud and abrasion.
Packaging from legacy merchandise might be modified for circularity as nicely, and Cisco’s Catalyst 9300 Enterprise Change is a primary instance.
To switch foam, we used recycled thermoforms to cushion the chassis — eliminating about 250 metric tonnes of froth yearly — and recycled and recyclable fiber-based retention packs for the ability provide models — avoiding roughly 70 extra metric tonnes per yr. To remove plastic luggage, we opted for paper flag labels on energy cords, consolidated small components throughout a number of luggage, and swapped out plastic for paper-based envelopes. In fiscal 2025, Cisco utilized these packaging modifications to the brand new technology Cisco C9350 good switches.
Packaging sustainability: A Round Design Precept
Round Design Ideas have remodeled the product and packing design course of at Cisco. Different examples of how we incorporate circularity into our packaging embrace:
- Lowering supplies utilization with a heightened deal with plastics discount
- Designing containers and packing supplies to be separable and simply recycled at finish of use
- Utilizing post-consumer waste in new packaging components
- Eliminating paper documentation in new product shipments
- Lowering the cargo of unused equipment by providing our clients an opt-out choice in the course of the ordering expertise
- Utilizing multipack options to cut back materials utilization and bundling containers for big shipments to cut back the variety of bins wanted
By utilizing extra environment friendly, renewable, and recyclable supplies, Cisco not solely helps preserve waste out of landfills however reduces prices and saves sources.
Be taught extra about these initiatives and Cisco’s packaging sustainability targets within the Cisco Goal Reporting Hub.
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