Sustainability 101 is a weblog collection which you could flip to for details about totally different environmental phrases which 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. Nonetheless, a lot of it turns into waste after one use.
Based on 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 extensively used as an efficient packaging materials, however as waste within the setting, it will possibly have a destructive affect.
Analysis revealed within the November 16, 2024, Journal of Hazardous Supplies Advances exhibits that that in landfills, plastic can emit toxins and develop into a supply of greenhouse gases (GHGs), and in oceans, it will possibly break down into microparticles that would disrupt meals chains and contribute to a wide range of well being problems.
Another non-recyclable or non-compostable packaging objects embrace foam, aluminum foil with meals residue, and fused parts similar to cardboard hooked up to foam that can’t be simply separated for recycling.
How does this affect customers’ selections? A 2025 McKinsey & Firm survey reviews that 77 p.c of respondents think about recyclable packaging “extraordinarily vital” or “essential,” whereas 62 p.c responded the identical about packaging produced from recycled supplies.
Packaging sustainability: Supplies matter
In a round financial system, industries modify their processes to allow the reuse and regeneration of supplies. The aim is to make merchandise with the smallest environmental affect utilizing the fewest assets attainable.
By specializing in supplies, corporations could make their product containers and parts extra sustainable, similar to berry growers utilizing compostable trays or cosmetics producers utilizing refillable containers for post-purchase reuse.
Another methods embrace:
- Lowering or eliminating pointless parts
- Utilizing QR codes to digitize info vs. printed supplies
- Incentivizing client recycling with rewards or by offering clear directions on easy methods to recycle
Utilizing these options can assist cut back packaging waste whereas aligning with buyer values. It additionally can assist cut 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 decreasing or eradicating sure supplies — similar to single-use plastic baggage and foam — and changing them with different supplies which are renewable, recyclable, or each.
In 2019, Cisco developed a set of Round Design Ideas for its merchandise throughout 5 classes — certainly one of which is packaging and equipment. Product groups and packaging engineers in our Provide Chain Operation group 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 interchange foam. By way of Cisco’s No Paper Initiative, QR codes for digital product info keep away from materials use altogether.
instance is the Cisco Ceiling Microphone Professional package deal, which is totally fiber primarily based. As a substitute of plastic trays, we opted for unbleached molded pulp-fiber trays which are robust sufficient to cushion the delicate unit, but gentle sufficient for cost-effective transport. We additionally swapped out the standard single-use plastic bag with a custom-fit paper sleeve that totally encases the unit and shields it from mud and abrasion.
Packaging from legacy merchandise may be modified for circularity as effectively, and Cisco’s Catalyst 9300 Enterprise Change is a major instance.
To interchange 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 items — avoiding roughly 70 extra metric tonnes per yr. To get rid of plastic baggage, we opted for paper flag labels on energy cords, consolidated small elements 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 technology Cisco C9350 good 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 embrace:
- Lowering supplies utilization with a heightened give attention to plastics discount
- Designing containers and packing supplies to be separable and simply recycled at finish of use
- Utilizing post-consumer waste in new packaging elements
- Eliminating paper documentation in new product shipments
- Lowering the cargo of unused equipment by providing our prospects an opt-out possibility in the course of the ordering expertise
- Utilizing multipack options to scale back materials utilization and bundling containers for giant shipments to scale back the variety of packing containers wanted
By utilizing extra environment friendly, renewable, and recyclable supplies, Cisco not solely helps preserve waste out of landfills however reduces prices and saves assets.
Study extra about these initiatives and Cisco’s packaging sustainability objectives within the Cisco Goal Reporting Hub.
Share:
