Sustainability 101 is a weblog collection that you would be able to flip to for details about totally different environmental phrases that will come up at work, throughout discussions with associates, and even at your loved ones gatherings.

Whether or not we’re buying grocery objects wrapped in plastic or receiving a house cargo packed in polystyrene peanuts, packaging is a part of our on a regular basis lives. Nevertheless, a lot of it turns into waste after one use.

In line with 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 extensively used as an efficient packaging materials, however as waste within the atmosphere, it could actually have a destructive impression.

Analysis revealed within the November 16, 2024, Journal of Hazardous Supplies Advances exhibits that that in landfills, plastic can emit toxins and grow to be a supply of greenhouse gases (GHGs), and in oceans, it could actually break down into microparticles that would disrupt meals chains and contribute to a wide range of well being issues.

Another non-recyclable or non-compostable packaging objects embody foam, aluminum foil with meals residue, and fused elements equivalent to cardboard hooked up to foam that can not be simply separated for recycling.

How does this affect shoppers’ selections? A 2025 McKinsey & Firm survey stories that 77 p.c of respondents take into account recyclable packaging “extraordinarily necessary” or “crucial,” whereas 62 p.c responded the identical about packaging created from recycled supplies.

Packaging sustainability: Supplies matter

In a round economic system, industries regulate their processes to allow the reuse and regeneration of supplies. The objective is to make merchandise with the smallest environmental impression utilizing the fewest sources doable.

By specializing in supplies, corporations could make their product containers and elements extra sustainable, equivalent to berry growers utilizing compostable trays or cosmetics producers utilizing refillable containers for post-purchase reuse.

Another methods embody:

• Decreasing or eliminating pointless elements
• Utilizing QR codes to digitize data vs. printed supplies
• Incentivizing shopper recycling with rewards or by offering clear directions on recycle

Utilizing these alternate options might help scale back packaging waste whereas aligning with buyer values. It additionally might help scale back packaging prices, optimize area effectivity, and construct in regulatory compliance.

How Cisco’s technique has advanced to suppose “contained in the field”

For Cisco, packaging sustainability is the follow of minimizing waste by lowering or eradicating sure supplies — equivalent to single-use plastic baggage and foam — and changing them with different supplies which might be renewable, recyclable, or each.

In 2019, Cisco developed a set of Round Design Ideas for its merchandise throughout 5 classes — considered one of which is packaging and equipment. Product groups and packaging engineers in our Provide Chain Operation crew collaborate on the outset of the design part to craft a package deal that gives the optimum steadiness of product safety and circularity. Lots of our merchandise now incorporate recyclable fiber-based cushions like FiberFlute®, paper tube cushions, and molded pulp to exchange foam. By way of Cisco’s No Paper Initiative, QR codes for digital product data keep away from materials use altogether.

A superb instance is the Cisco Ceiling Microphone Professional package deal, which is absolutely fiber based mostly. As a substitute of plastic trays, we opted for unbleached molded pulp-fiber trays which might be robust sufficient to cushion the delicate unit, but gentle 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 may be modified for circularity as nicely, and Cisco’s Catalyst 9300 Enterprise Swap is a major instance.

To exchange 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 facility provide models — avoiding roughly 70 extra metric tonnes per yr. To eradicate plastic baggage, we opted for paper flag labels on energy cords, consolidated small components throughout a number of baggage, and swapped out plastic for paper-based envelopes. In fiscal 2025, Cisco utilized these packaging adjustments to the brand new technology Cisco C9350 sensible 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 embody:

• Decreasing 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
• Decreasing the cargo of unused equipment by providing our clients an opt-out choice throughout the ordering expertise
• Utilizing multipack options to scale back materials utilization and bundling containers for big shipments to scale back the variety of bins wanted

Through the use of extra environment friendly, renewable, and recyclable supplies, Cisco not solely helps maintain waste out of landfills however reduces prices and saves sources.

Study extra about these initiatives and Cisco’s packaging sustainability targets within the Cisco Objective Reporting Hub.

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