Packaging with a purpose

packaging“According to the Environmental Protection Agency…, containers and packaging accounted for 30% – or 75.2m tons – of total solid waste generated in the US in 2012. To put that into perspective, we discard our own weight in packaging every 30-40 days, on average, according to Stanford University. …A growing number of companies and entrepreneurs are working on new ways to tackle this problem. And they are making progress: more than half of this packaging waste – 51.5% or 38.75m tons – was recovered for recycling or composting in 2012. That’s a higher percentage than the 34.5% of total municipal solid waste that ended up recycled or composted, which in itself represented a big increase from the 15.9% recovered in 1990 – and the 6.35% in 1960.

But that still leaves plenty of packaging waste – more than 36m tons – in landfills.”

The Solution:

Reimage what packaging could mean. Is there a way you could redesign the packaging of a product in such a way that the packing could become part of the product once unpacked? Maybe you can change the packing materials so they are recyclable, reusable, biocompatible, consumable, intended for second/third/multiple other uses. Maybe you could design a system for packaging that informs consumers of the ways in which they can more easily use/reuse/dispose of their packaging once the product is removed. You may want to spend a few minutes doing some research into what is currently being researched/implemented for reimagined packaging.

The Pitch:

Once you have picked your product/class of products/type of packaging/packaging system, develop some type of solution to eliminate, repurpose, recycle, or in some way reduce the impact of consumer product packaging on the world.

Use the materials provided (?) to develop a 90-second pitch (timed) to sell your idea to potential investors. Your investors care about the following:

  • Potential of your design/system to have a scalable effect on consumer packaging (i.e. make your idea expandable to many types of products).
  • Reduction of downcycling. Every time you recycle mixed products, the raw material is degraded to some extent. Think beyond expansions of traditional recycling systems.
  • Making packaging that does well for the world, not a system/design that just minimizes the negative impacts of packaging.
  • Think globally. The investors want solutions that can work in many diverse locations around the world.