Sustainability 101 is a weblog sequence which you can flip to for details about completely different environmental phrases that will come up at work, throughout discussions with pals, and even at your loved ones gatherings.
Whether or not we’re buying grocery gadgets wrapped in plastic or receiving a house cargo packed in polystyrene peanuts, packaging is a part of our on a regular basis lives. Nonetheless, a lot of it turns into waste after one use.
In keeping with the Organisation for Financial Co-operation and Growth (OECD), 31% of plastics produced are for packaging – usually single-use and with a median six-month lifespan. Plastic is broadly used as an efficient packaging materials, however as waste within the setting, it may well have a detrimental impression.
Analysis printed 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 may well break down into microparticles that would disrupt meals chains and contribute to quite a lot of well being problems.
Another non-recyclable or non-compostable packaging gadgets embrace foam, aluminum foil with meals residue, and fused elements comparable to cardboard hooked up to foam that can not be simply separated for recycling.
How does this affect shoppers’ decisions? A 2025 McKinsey & Firm survey studies that 77 % of respondents contemplate recyclable packaging “extraordinarily necessary” or “crucial,” whereas 62 % responded the identical about packaging made out of recycled supplies.
Packaging sustainability: Supplies matter
In a round economic system, industries regulate their processes to allow the reuse and regeneration of supplies. The purpose is to make merchandise with the smallest environmental impression utilizing the fewest sources doable.
By specializing in supplies, firms could make their product containers and elements extra sustainable, comparable to berry growers utilizing compostable trays or cosmetics producers utilizing refillable containers for post-purchase reuse.
Another methods embrace:
- Decreasing or eliminating pointless elements
- Utilizing QR codes to digitize info vs. printed supplies
- Incentivizing client recycling with rewards or by offering clear directions on how you can recycle
Utilizing these options will help scale back packaging waste whereas aligning with buyer values. It additionally will help scale back packaging prices, optimize area effectivity, and construct in regulatory compliance.
How Cisco’s technique has advanced to assume “contained in the field”
For Cisco, packaging sustainability is the follow of minimizing waste by lowering or eradicating sure supplies — comparable to single-use plastic baggage and foam — and changing them with different supplies which can be renewable, recyclable, or each.
In 2019, Cisco developed a set of Round Design Rules for its merchandise throughout 5 classes — considered one of which is packaging and equipment. Product groups and packaging engineers in our Provide Chain Operation staff collaborate on the outset of the design section to craft a bundle that gives the optimum stability of product safety and circularity. A lot of our merchandise now incorporate recyclable fiber-based cushions like FiberFlute®, paper tube cushions, and molded pulp to interchange foam. By Cisco’s No Paper Initiative, QR codes for digital product info keep away from materials use altogether.
instance is the Cisco Ceiling Microphone Professional bundle, which is absolutely fiber primarily based. As a substitute of plastic trays, we opted for unbleached molded pulp-fiber trays which can be robust sufficient to cushion the delicate unit, but mild sufficient for cost-effective delivery. 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 will be modified for circularity as properly, and Cisco’s Catalyst 9300 Enterprise Change is a main 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 ability provide models — avoiding roughly 70 further metric tonnes per yr. To get rid of 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 modifications to the brand new era Cisco C9350 good switches.
Packaging sustainability: A Round Design Precept
Round Design Rules have reworked the product and packing design course of at Cisco. Different examples of how we incorporate circularity into our packaging embrace:
- Decreasing supplies utilization with a heightened concentrate on 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 prospects an opt-out choice in the course of the ordering expertise
- Utilizing multipack options to cut back materials utilization and bundling containers for big shipments to cut back the variety of bins wanted
By utilizing 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 objectives within the Cisco Goal Reporting Hub.
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