Post Date
July,
23
2019
It’s the end of July 2019 and the UK Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, has just released an announcement, stating that it is to invest £60m in a project to develop new eco-friendly packaging solutions. With businesses adding up to £149m to help bring in to use, alternatives made from food waste, plants and wood chippings.
Now as a company, Ryder Hub has been inspired by Myga Yoga and aims to be eco friendly and has removed all single use plastics from it’s packaging of yoga mats and yoga related products. Myga’s next stage, is to incorporate eco friendly materials into the manufacturing and already uses cork, rubber, bamboo and paper.
Ryder Hub have also invested in a machine, that we can feed waste cardboard in to and then what comes out, is a remarkable sheet of cardboard, that can be used as box filler or protective wrapping, replacing plastic bubble wrap and polystyrene fillers that are commonly used. However it’s not just good for the planet, but is also good for business, as we used to have to store and dispose of the cardboard and buy in packaging materials, where as now, we take our waste and turn it into an eco-friendly alternative.
But what about Myga’s strategy of eco-friendly packaging? It came from a conscious decision that Myga, as a company wanted to cut it’s impact on the environment and still offer products that were customer friendly and friendly on the pocket. However Myga does offer alternatives, with higher end cork or rubber yoga mats available and whilst Myga would be the first to admit that they are not perfect, they are trying and are improving daily where and when possible.
According to a recent study, this strategy makes business sense; a Green Buying Report conducted by Exal Corp shows, that not all that we may think, is actually true.
According to recent surveys, its suggests that mainly the young that are interested in eco products and saving the planet. In the study over 50% of over 50’s say “sustainability of packaging is a factor in their product selection decision”.
55% of all respondents said that price over sustainability, was not the deciding factor in product purchasing and in fact, would be happy to pay on average 5% more for a sustainable product. With 57% saying that they would not buy a product if they considered it damaging to the environment.
The last factor that came out, was that plastic is the enemy, with only 15% of all recyclable plastic actually being recycled and that even recyclable plastic has a limited life in the number of times, that it can be reincarnated. Customers understand this and are looking for biodegradable, recyclable or reusable options.
The main factors to take away from this are, that nearly half of consumers today, are actively seeking information on the sustainability of products they buy and use; consumers care and are willing to pay for greener packaging. At the same time, there is a need for those of us in the industry, to transparently address eco-friendly trends, with product sustainability information on packaging, and to provide packaging options that meet consumer demands, for sustainable and recyclable items.
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