How to Become More Sustainable in Your Label and Packaging Choices

According to Forbes, over 58% of all consumers report they would pay extra for goods that are environmentally friendly, and, incredibly, nearly 90% of Gen X consumers say they are willing to spend more for sustainable goods. Between the consumer demand for more sustainable product options and legislative requirements expected to come in the next few years, now is the time to take action for sustainable labels and packaging.

Inovar Packaging Group is your printer of choice when it comes to sustainable solutions. We work to build custom sustainable solutions that take into account our customers’ unique budgetary, design, supply, and production requirements. Whether you’re new to sustainable packaging solutions or have been committed to sustainable practices for years, the experts at Inovar will help you find the right option for your brand and application.

Here are the top three options to consider when you’re ready to become more sustainable in your packaging choices:

1. Make your packaging recyclable

While the recycling stream can seem opaque, our Association with the Association of Plastic Recyclers and decades of experience in sustainable labeling practices position us as an industry leader when it comes to sustainability.

We offer a great number of options for making your packaging recyclable, and the first step will be to talk about your primary packaging container. Once we’ve established your primary packaging container, we can then guide you to the right pressure sensitive label material, ink, and adhesion to ensure your

product can be recycled. We offer label materials that can be recycled with many container materials, including PET, Glass, Aluminum, HDPE Multi-Colored containers, and more. You can read a breakdown of some of the most common packaging container types and the corresponding label materials that will enable your package to be recycled here, or just reach out to us and we’ll guide you to the right material choice for your specific product.

2. Use Recycled Materials

Another way to create more sustainable label and packaging options is to use recycled and sustainable materials. Inovar offers many label materials that are made up of recycled content or other materials that are more sustainably sourced.

We have a wide variety of materials made from different amounts of post-consumer waste (PCW) material available, from 30% PCW to 100% PCW material. Some of our popular materials we offer with PCW content include:

• Clear, white, or silver BOPP
• Clear, white, or silver polyester
• Semigloss and dairy grade paper
• Textured and specialty paper

Lately we’ve also been able to source more label materials with liners comprised of recycled content as well. You can learn more about our variety of recycled material and liner options here.

3. Reduce your packaging

Choosing label and packaging options that reduce the waste associated with traditional packaging can be a high-impact way of attaining more sustainable business practices. Besides choosing primary packaging

that uses less material, we can help you reduce your packaging with thinner label liners for pressure sensitive labels.

We can help reduce the amount of label waste by substituting a thinner liner for some label materials. Using a thinner liner for your labels reduces your environmental impact of course, but it also can provide up to 15% more labels per roll. Some of the label materials we can substitute a thinner liner for include clear, white, and metalized BOPP, and paper. The liner options that can be substituted are paper, PVC, or PLA material

At select locations, we’ve also begun to offer a label liner recycling initiative. It is currently focused on clear release liner only (PET liner). After a full truck load of liner is accumulated, the material will be recycled through the RafCycle Program at Raflatac into either new label materials, paper or PET products, or other innovative circular solutions. If you’re interested in learning more about this program or to find out if there’s a collection location near you, contact us here. And check out this post if you’d like to discover other ways we endeavor to reduce environmental impact.

It’s important to note that we are always working toward more and better options, and there are many factors we take into consideration when we build a custom sustainable label for you; when it comes to any sustainable label and packaging choice, your application method is going to play a big role in the implementation and feasibility of different options. The best way to get started is to contact us directly so we can simplify things and guide you to right sustainable choices for you.