Packaging is a universal product with which each of us comes into daily contact several times. It is the wrapping that best protects the content so that it arrives in perfect condition to the final user, but with its colours and graphics it sends out striking messages and conveys the choice of product. With symbols and text it provides information about the contents, such as weight, composition, usage mode and many more. Packaging is therefore only an apparent simplicity that conceals great potential and great responsibility...

Environmental sustainability according to Packstyle

Packstyle has always been aware of the importance of packaging, and over the years, it has constantly refined and improved its products to meet the needs of the public by offering resistant and attractive pouches suitable for the most diverse requirements. In addition to the study and technical development of its products, Packstyle pursues a path of awareness by designing packaging that reduces its environmental impact by focusing on recyclability.

In fact, Packstyle has recently launched two new recyclable materials on the market: the metallised recyclable film and the transparent recyclable film, two solutions that retain all the protective characteristics of barriers to light (ed. only the metallised solution), moisture and gases, passing the recyclability test with flying colours.

But the path towards a more environmentally sustainable future is constantly evolving and Packstyle has chosen to follow it by adapting and always finding conscious and ethical solutions.

It is within this framework that Packstyle has decided to become an Ambassador of the Ethical Charter of Packaging Foundation.

Ethical Charter of Packaging 

Foundation came into being on 29 May 2020 following the establishment of the Ethical Packaging Charter in 2015. A non-profit organisation, the Foundation is committed to promoting and popularising packaging as an instrument of progress and civilisation through the dissemination of the science that regulates the functions that packaging must perform, with respect for sustainable and ethical development.

Ambassadors act as spokespersons and promoters of a 'system culture' towards a more conscious future by linking obligations and rights that link production with use and consumption, subjects who are bearers of obligations and subjects who have rights and expectations.

Packstyle has therefore chosen to sign a sort of ideal contract through which the actors in the system, from designers to end users, commit themselves to sharing the Charter's 10 principles, which we summarise briefly below.

1. RESPONSIBLE PACKAGING
   Packaging must be responsible and is so when it combines environmental protection with respect for the needs of all users.

2. BALANCED PACKAGING
   Balanced packaging must not be excessive in either communication or design: it must provide suitable truthful information without distracting the buyer.

3. SAFE PACKAGING
   Packaging must give users all the information about its tracking and tracing, the production chain, and, in addition, guarantee hygiene and protection not only during transport but throughout the life of the product.

4. ACCESSIBLE PACKAGING
   Packaging must guarantee accessibility to the product even for the weakest persons regardless of the sensory abilities of the users. Communication must therefore be fluent with everyone: simple, intuitive and encourage the use and consumption of the product.

5. TRANSPARENT PACKAGING
   Packaging must communicate truthfully, directly, comprehensibly and without distortion or deception. Only in this way is it possible to build an immediate and lasting relationship with buyers, minimising the risk of misinterpretation.

6. INFORMATIVE PACKAGING
   The packaging, as prescribed by the regulations, must contain all useful information on the contents and its packaging, their use and disposal.

7. CONTEMPORARY PACKAGING
   Packaging reflects the culture of society and in turn contributes to its creation. Through their messages, shapes, graphics and symbols they transfer patterns and participate in the evolution of contemporaneity.

8. FORWARD-LOOKING PACKAGING
   The development of packaging must involve a constant commitment to research and innovation. It must also be able to rethink itself for the users of tomorrow.

9. EDUCATIONAL PACKAGING
   Packaging must exercise an educational function by inducing virtuous behaviour with its messages, increasing the user's knowledge and skills on issues that are recognised as priorities from time to time, or on real emergencies. It must indicate how to act to dispose of, recycle or reuse packaging or how to reduce waste.

10. SUSTAINABLE PACKAGING
    Sustainable packaging is designed, manufactured, transported and recycled using renewable and clean energies wherever possible and is effectively recovered after use. Packaging to be defined as environmentally friendly must be achieved with the lowest consumption of resources and energy. It must be designed and produced according to a recyclability principle and be based on recycled materials as a priority.

Packstyle's commitment

We at Packstyle have always been very sensitive to environmental innovations, we have achieved individual goals with the idea that we have arrived at intermediate stages and never at the final goal. Our product itself was born as the type of packaging that has the lowest environmental impact throughout its life cycle (LCA) and we have spent resources and energy to ensure that this green advantage is confirmed by state-of-the-art materials and sustainable solutions. For this reason, upon reading the 10 principles of the Ethical Charter of Packaging, we recognised ourselves in their intentions and decided to become Ambassadors to promote, disseminate and raise awareness among the various players in the packaging supply chain and consumers themselves on the importance of a conscious use of packaging.

Even a product as light and subtle as packaging, passing through everyone's hands, can send important messages and encourage responsible behaviour. We at Packstyle believe in this!

^[1]  According to a recent study conducted by the German Heldelberg Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IFEU), the carbon footprint of flexible packaging is more than 60% lower than that of rigid alternatives.