How to Manage and Reduce Packaging Waste in Your Company

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Producing excess packaging waste at your company isn’t just bad for the environment, it can also make it difficult to store all your trash. To increase your business’s amount of usable space and reduce your negative environmental impact, follow these tips for how to manage and reduce packaging waste in your company.

Conduct an audit of your company

The first step to reducing waste at your company is awareness of your current behaviors. An audit of your facility allows you to properly address your current waste management procedures and determine how you can improve them. Aspects to consider include whether your packaging is reusable, what recycling methods you currently utilize, and if you use the least wasteful form of packaging possible.

Develop a minimal packaging design

Your packaging design has one of the biggest impacts on the amount of waste that your company produces. Switching to a simple and minimal design is one of the best ways to reduce your carbon footprint. Using less material in your packaging will also greatly reduce the cost of production and will require less fuel to transport items.

Switch to recyclable packaging

According to GMA, “Eighty percent of [CPG] companies are working toward fully recyclable packaging for all of their products by 2030 at the latest.” Choosing to join this trend will greatly reduce the amount of waste that ends up in Earth’s rapidly overflowing landfills each year.

Get a baler

While a reduction of the waste your company produces should be your main priority, managing the waste you already have is also important. Waste can take up a lot of space and require frequent transportation to landfills or recycling facilities. A recycling baler is an easy way to solve both issues. Vertical balers don’t take up much space and can compact and store your waste, which reduces the need for frequent waste transportation. Investing in a baler can even provide an additional source of revenue for your company, as many recycling firms will pay a premium for baled waste.