Reducing plastic packaging sounds simple until a damaged shipment arrives at your customer's door.
The goal shouldn't be to eliminate material indiscriminately. It should be to eliminate unnecessary material while maintaining the performance required to protect the product.
That distinction matters.
Start With Packaging Optimization
Before switching materials, evaluate how much packaging you're currently using.
Look at:
- Film thickness
- Package dimensions
- Excess film
- Oversized boxes
- Stretch-film usage
- Secondary packaging
Small reductions multiplied across millions of packages can produce substantial savings.
Consider Downgauging
Downgauging means moving to a thinner film while maintaining acceptable performance.
Higher-performance films may allow companies to use less material without proportionally sacrificing strength.
The calculation should consider cost per package—not simply cost per pound or roll.
Optimize Your Equipment
Incorrect settings can cause excessive material consumption.
Shrink wrappers, stretch wrappers and other packaging machines should be configured around the material being used.
Proper tension, temperature, conveyor speed and sealing conditions can improve both package quality and material efficiency.
Test Before Changing
Never make a major packaging change based solely on specifications.
Run production tests.
Evaluate:
- Seal strength
- Puncture resistance
- Shrink appearance
- Transportation performance
- Product damage
- Machine speed
Saving three cents of film isn't much of a victory if it creates a $30 damaged product.
Sustainability and Cost Reduction Can Work Together
The Sustainable Packaging Coalition's 2026 trends report emphasizes continued work around design guidelines, recyclability assessments and innovation in packaging categories facing sustainability challenges.
For businesses, material efficiency can therefore serve two purposes: reducing environmental impact and lowering packaging costs.
Talk to Packaging Made Easy
Packaging Made Easy can help evaluate packaging films, equipment and production requirements to identify opportunities to reduce material consumption without sacrificing packaging performance.
