Transitioning to a Circular Economy

I recently bought a beauty / skin care product from a brand that shall remain unnamed, but I was  disappointed with the packaging design. It had so much empty space and extra inserts simply to make it more appealing from a marketing standpoint, but functionally unnecessary and frankly frustrating  from a consumer perspective to open and recycle. 

I was not surprised to read that, according to research by DS Smith, a packaging company in US, "nearly all consumers (93 percent) say they have received packages with wasted space, and nearly three-fourths (or 73 percent) say they have received packages that were twice the size of the items inside or much more than needed."https://www.recyclingtoday.com/article/ds-smith-establishes-circular-design-principles-ellen-macarthur-foundation/

It is good to see DS Smith, in their effort to transition to a circular economy, took a lead to tackle the issue of wasted space by developing packaging design principles in collaboration with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. 

More than 850 organisations have united behind the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s mission to accelerate transition to a circular economy with 2025 targets for plastics, fashion, food, and finance capital towards circular solutions.

As consumers, many of us consider sustainability in our product choices, and when it comes to waste the circular economy principles will help advance many sectors in their transition to design out waste throughout the life cycle of their products, finding innovative ways to manage resources, make and use products, discard or recycle them in ways that benefit economy, people and planet.