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ackaging has a lot of jobs to do. It needs to protect what’s inside, survive transport, communicate what the product is and, ideally, catch someone’s eye before the competitor sitting next to it does.
Then there’s one more increasingly important job: reducing its environmental impact.
Switching to eco-friendly packaging sounds simple enough, but the reality is a little more nuanced. A material might be recyclable but difficult to print on. Another might be compostable but not suited to every product. And something that looks wonderfully natural may not necessarily be the most sustainable option available.
So, following on from our exploration of creative food packaging design, let’s look at some of the eco-friendly packaging options available, including where they shine, where they fall short and what they mean for your design.
First, What Makes Packaging Eco-Friendly?
Brown cardboard and a little green leaf certainly look sustainable, but good eco-friendly packaging goes further than aesthetics.
The whole lifecycle matters: how much material is used, where it comes from, how efficiently the packaging can be produced and transported, and what happens to it when the customer is finished with it.
In Australia, recyclability can even be affected by seemingly small design choices including inks, adhesives, labels, size and the combination of materials used. In other words, the package needs to be considered as a whole, not just the box it came in.
5 Eco-Friendly Packaging Options and Their Pros and Cons
1. Recycled Kraft Paper and Cardboard
Probably the poster child of sustainable packaging, recycled kraft has become widely used for boxes, mailers, sleeves, bags and food packaging.
Best for: Boxes, mailers, sleeves, takeaway packaging and brands that suit a natural, earthy aesthetic.
Watch out for: Colour reproduction and contrast, particularly with pale colours, photography or detailed designs.
How widely used? Very. Kraft paper and cardboard are already common across retail, food, e-commerce and shipping packaging.
Pros: It can contain recycled material, is widely recognisable as an eco-conscious choice and gives brands an earthy, tactile look. Paper and cardboard also fit within established recycling systems when designed appropriately.
Cons: That lovely natural brown colour can be a designer’s headache. Bright colours, pale tones and detailed imagery can lose some of their punch when printed directly onto kraft. One solution is using a white label or carefully placed white ink to give key design elements more contrast, although every additional label, coating or adhesive should be considered as part of the package’s recyclability.
Probably the poster child of sustainable packaging, recycled kraft has become widely used for boxes, mailers, sleeves, bags and food packaging.
2. Recycled or Responsibly Sourced White Paperboard
Yes, eco-friendly packaging is allowed to be white.
White paperboard gives designers a much cleaner canvas for bright colours, photography and intricate branding. Depending on the board, its whiteness may be achieved through bleaching or other pulp-processing methods, so sourcing and manufacturing processes are worth investigating rather than judging sustainability by colour alone.
Pros: Excellent print quality, strong colour reproduction, versatile and already used at commercial scale.
Cons: Environmental credentials vary considerably depending on fibre source, recycled content, coatings and manufacturing process.
Best for: Retail boxes, food packaging and brands where bright colours, photography or detailed graphics are important.
Watch out for: Not all white paperboard has the same environmental credentials. Fibre source, recycled content, coatings and processing methods all matter.
How widely used? Very widely. Paperboard is already produced and printed at commercial scale, making it one of the more accessible options for businesses.
For some brands, a responsibly sourced recyclable white board may actually make more sense than kraft, especially if achieving the same visual result on brown stock would require additional labels, inks or finishes.
3. Moulded Pulp
Think egg cartons, protective inserts and the increasingly sleek moulded packaging appearing around electronics, cosmetics and homewares.
Moulded fibre or pulp can replace plastic inserts while creating an intentionally raw, tactile appearance.
Best for: Protective inserts, trays and products that need cushioning, particularly electronics, cosmetics, homewares and some food products.
Watch out for: Moisture, detailed printing and designs that rely heavily on fine graphics or photography.
How widely used? Well established for protective packaging and becoming increasingly visible in premium consumer packaging.
Pros: Excellent for cushioning products, can incorporate recycled fibre and creates a distinctive natural texture.
Cons: It isn’t suited to every product, fine printing can be challenging, and moisture resistance may require additional treatment. The textured surface also means branding often needs to be simplified, embossed or added using a separate sleeve or label.
4. Compostable Bioplastics
Made from renewable materials such as starches, compostable bioplastics can offer an alternative to conventional fossil-fuel plastics in certain applications.
Pros: Useful where traditional paper packaging isn’t practical and potentially compostable under the correct conditions.
Cons: “Compostable” doesn’t automatically mean “throw it in the garden and watch it disappear”. Different materials require different composting conditions, and access to appropriate disposal infrastructure matters. Compostable packaging also isn’t covered by Australia’s standard Australasian Recycling Label for kerbside recyclability.
Best for: Selected food-service and flexible packaging applications where paper isn’t practical and an appropriate composting pathway exists.
Watch out for: Disposal instructions. Compostable does not necessarily mean home compostable, and access to industrial composting facilities can be limited.
How widely used? Increasingly available, particularly in food service, but disposal infrastructure and suitable applications remain more limited than conventional recycling.
This is where clear packaging design becomes especially important: customers need to know what to do with it after use.
5. Emerging Materials: Mushroom, Seaweed and Beyond
This is where things get interesting.
Packaging made from mycelium (the root-like structure of fungi), seaweed and other plant-derived materials is pushing sustainable packaging into completely new territory.
Best for: Innovative brands, specialist applications and businesses looking to experiment with alternatives to conventional plastics and foams.
Watch out for: Cost, availability, performance requirements and whether production can scale with the business.
How widely used? Still emerging. Some materials are commercially available, but they don’t yet have the manufacturing scale or infrastructure of paper, cardboard or conventional plastics.
Pros: Renewable feedstocks, exciting possibilities for reducing dependence on conventional plastics and one heck of a brand story.
Cons: Many emerging materials don’t yet offer the cost, barrier performance, manufacturing infrastructure or scalability of established paper, glass and plastic solutions. Seaweed-based materials, for example, can still struggle with moisture-barrier performance for certain foods.
In other words: exciting? Absolutely. Ready to replace every chip packet tomorrow? Not quite.
The goal isn’t to make sustainable packaging look sustainable. It’s to create packaging that genuinely makes sense for the product, the customer and its end of life, while still earning its place on the shelf.
Sustainable Doesn’t Have to Look Dull
Perhaps the biggest misconception around eco-friendly packaging is that choosing sustainable materials means sacrificing design.
It doesn’t. It simply changes the creative problem.
The colour of the material, texture, printing method, labels, adhesives and finishes all become part of the design process. Sometimes the natural surface becomes part of the brand identity. Sometimes clever typography does the heavy lifting. Sometimes a small white label gives bright brand colours the stage they need.
Great packaging has always been about balancing practical limitations with creative possibilities. Eco-friendly packaging simply gives us a few more interesting limitations to play with.
Thinking about giving your packaging a more sustainable makeover? Visual Targets can help you explore the materials, print choices and creative direction that bring your brand to life without losing sight of what happens after the package is opened. Get in touch and let’s create something worth picking up, and disposing of thoughtfully.
Creative genius, talented wordsmith and all-rounder copywriter up for the grabs! If you can’t stand the look of your copy right now, she’ll shape your rambles into the most compelling words.
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