A packaging company is rolling out new designs to lower its impact on the planet.
Redmond, Washington-based PAC Worldwide Corporation — supplier of paper, bubble-lined, and flat mailers for the courier, e-commerce, fulfillment, and distribution markets — announced in October that it was releasing packaging options made with 100% recycled content, including a 100% recyclable Polyjacket, which it debuted at the Pack Expo in Chicago last week.
PAC Worldwide said in its news release that the mailers come featuring either 100% post-consumer resin or 100% post-industrial recycled material. The former was certified to the Recycled Claim Standard.
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The company offers other options with 50% recycled content, and a curbside recyclable padded paper mailer called Ecojacket Flex garnered the highest rating from industry group How2Recycle.
"There is more than one way to think about — and build — a more sustainable future for our planet," PAC Worldwide President Thomas Parenteau said. "These innovative products demonstrate PAC's pledge to make all our industry-leading flexible packaging recyclable, reusable, or compostable by 2025. I'm proud to say we are well on our way."
It's important to support brands that make such changes, which reduces demand for goods that harm the environment and helps eco-conscious companies earn money and make change.
Since plastics are made from dirty fuels that produce planet-warming pollution, alternatives from renewable materials help curb waste and contribute to a circular economy. This reduces costs in the long run for businesses and consumers, and it boosts our health as well as that of the planet by reducing toxic gases in the atmosphere.
As a bonus, these new mailers are also touted as easy to use, sturdy, and recyclable. The last point is important, as 85% of plastic packaging worldwide winds up in landfills, according to Deutsche Welle, and PAC even states on its website that bubble-lined paper mailers must go in the trash. (You can reuse those items, as you can just about anything, if you're careful about how you rip them open.)
That said, poly mailers are widely recyclable, and the proliferation of plastic bag recycling options at grocery stores and other businesses has surely helped.
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