It’s funny that a few years ago, people were all over the new packaging material, plastic. The consumers thought this is the wonder material, the material that’s great for the environment. It’s cheap to produce, easy to work with, and it doesn’t hurt any trees! It was during the time where trees were being cut down indiscriminately; so people were happy that plastic was used for packaging and not paper in order to save the trees. Plastic was believed to be the material that can save Mother Earth.

Fast forward years later and we see the immense effects of using plastic. The problem is, plastic is non-biodegradable and it is hardly reused or recycled. Most people use it on a one-time basis only. Plastic makes use of chemicals and materials that’s harmful to the environment.

We’ve probably heard of environment-friendly packaging design in the packaging industry. It’s the hottest thing today, but it’s big not only because it’s popular, but because it’s good for the environment. Consumer products always have a great deal of impact on the world and our environment. Companies are now taking the responsibility of sustainability to foresee that future generations can still enjoy nature as we do today.

I admire creative and environmentally friendly packaging. The companies’ efforts to save the planet are encouraging. It’s good to know that there are still lots of people who care for mother earth. Here are some of the most creative and environmentally friendly packaging designs that I could find. It’s time to go green!

Yellow + Blue = Green Wines

Have you ever heard of organic wines? If not, let me tell you about Yellow + Blue. This wine brand has four flavors, namely: Rose, Torrontes, Sauvignon Blanc & Malbec. The wine’s packaging is an environmentally friendly carton, with 93% wine and only 7% packaging, containing less carbon footprint.

Lee Paper Bag

Lee has recently come up with a really clever paper bag. The best thing is that it’s eco-friendly and that not a single part never gets wasted. It is designed by Happy Creative Services from India.

Image by The Dieline

How does the Lee Never Wasted work? First of all, the packaging works just as any other shopping bag, which is to hold your purchases. But the one thing that’s so cool is that 100% of it can be reused afterwards. The packaging is made from recycled paper, and can be reused again as a paper bag. However, they can be used for other purposes as well: you can cut out some parts which can be used as a calendar, a ruler, a door sign, a pencil holder, a snakes and ladders game, dice, credit card holder, condom holder, first aid chart, bookmarks, mask, custom black book–even the handles can be reused as shoe laces! How cool is that?

Image by The Dieline

Flat Pack Pocket Lights

There’s something so cool and practical about having a portable light source with you at all times. That’s why flat pack lights are becoming the biggest thing now. They are tiny enough to fit in your wallet, since it is as big as a credit card. They’re not fragile like real bulbs, but make use of LED lights implanted on an aluminum sheet. This is environment friendly, and at the same time, a great tool to guide you to safety in case you’re walking down dark alleys and shady streets.

Hangerpak

Image by Design Reviver

This clever hanger design make use of eco-friendly carton to eliminate using plastic for hanging clothes. It also helps that it looks very innovative and sleek.

Tous H20

Nothing screams ‘eco-chic’ more than the latest fragrance by Perfumes y Diseño. The bottle is 100% recyclable, made from 25% recycled material. The Tous H20 is a marriage between beauty and sustainability, created to help the earth as a part of the sales is donated to providing people with clean water. Not only do you smell good, but you’re creating a cleaner and safer world as well.

Recycle Easily

This is one of the most creative and eco-centered packaging designs that I have found. Recycle Easily is conceptualized by one Brett Allcorn, who encourages people to recycle the packaging they bought. The packaging has a back label that can be peeled off, revealing the return postage so that people can send the packaging back for recycling once it has already expired its use.

The creative packaging design won the Go Green Competition Award.

Eco-Undies

Photo by Best Design Options

Eco-undies are made of organic cotton. They don’t make use of any harmful chemical pesticides, and it’s bleach-free and dye-free.

Gotta Moo

Gotta Moo creates an eco-friendly packaging for their milk products. Everything is 100% natural, they use the sugarcane bagasse pulp paper, coated with sugarcane lignin and printed using vegetable-based inks. The pulp paper is very much recyclable, and it minimizes greenhouse emissions too.

Eco-Friendly Packaging Design Concept for Coke

A design student by the name of  Andrew Seunghyun Kim has recently created a creative packaging design for Coke. The concept hasn’t exactly come off the drawing board, but we are hoping that Coke will be taking this idea into consideration.

Image by WB-3D

The proposed design looks sleek and modern. It’s a lot slimmer and smaller than the packaging used by Coke today; thus encouraging more people to reuse and recycle. It is eco-friendly, stackable and thus perfect to carry everywhere.

We’re hoping that other companies will also follow suit and use eco-friendly materials such as biodegradable plastic, paper, bamboo, or textile. For eco-friendly packaging needs, here are the best companies that you can count on saving the world for the future:

1. Harmless Packaging – Harmless Packaging uses 100% compostable packaging. Harmless Packaging uses materials that starts in Earth harmless & ends in Earth harmless.

2. Wow Spiral - provides eco-friendly packaging solutions for CDs and DVDs. The packaging makes use of recycled material that folds into a spiral clasp, properly securing the CD or DVD inside. It’s highly creative and inventive, so despite being an eco-friendly product, it’s a sure stand out.

3. Plastic Ingenuity – the company has provided green packaging solutions for almost four decades. It has made use of materials that are renewable such as wood pulp, polyactic acid materials, paper and more.

4. Eco Bags – Their mantra is: ‘Cleaning up the planet, one day at a time.’ The company creates organic and sustainable canvas totes, lunch bags, produce bags, water bottles, woven bags, and more.

5. Grow a Tree Bags - The company’s main goal is to help save trees! How? Simply by reusing old designer fabrics and turning them into reusable grocery tote bags! There is a diverse collection of colors, designs and patters you can choose from online.