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eye-catching or lowering environmental impact: does it have to be a choice?
As an entrepreneur you are probably well aware of it: There is more to business than just putting a great product on the shelves. Your product needs to catch the eye as well. But these days consumers care more about the environment than ever. Great packaging that draws attention often goes hand in hand with significant CO2-emissions. Just when companies start looking for sustainable and ecological growth. So is there a middle ground between great packaging and green growth? Being an expert in product packaging, Helios did the research.
Packaging and the environment
It has been known for quite a long time that the packaging industry makes little effort to reduce its ecological impact. Everyone seems to agree that packaging and the environment do not go hand in hand, and too many companies have come to terms with that. But there is another way. At Helios, we believe that every company should take responsibility for making their growth green. That’s why we looked at various packaging solutions and reached the following conclusions:
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A lot of packaging is difficult to separate from each other. This is problematic for waste streams. Good sorting is vital for reducing emissions, and we think that responsibility lies with the packaging company.
- Many of the current solutions result in enormous amounts of glue, paper or ink residues. When they end up in water, the negative impact on the environment is incalculable.
- Far too much traditional plastic is still being used. This is not recyclable and therefore no longer ecologically responsible.
Less CO2, much less …
To counteract the problems within our industry, Helios searched for the most appropriate solution. We started working with shrink sleeves. This revolutionary packaging not only looks stunning, it also has the following eco-friendly advantages:
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The perforation in the sleeves makes it easy to separate packaging from product. This helps the consumer to sort the waste and thus ensures separate waste streams.
- Our sleeves can be composed of thin PET, R-PET and hybrid materials to minimise the CO2 impact. Our alternatives perfectly support the recyclability.
The result? 1 tonne of our shrink sleeves emits 1,920 kg less CO2 than traditional labels. Revolutionary, we’d say …
