Industries In Need Of Sustainability Product Innovation
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If we love our planet so much, why are so many industries trying to hurt it??
Even with all of the advances in technology and design and a renewed global focus on sustainability, many industries and companies are still far behind in creating eco-friendly products.?
Customers want to do their part to help the environment, even through small actions like purchasing sustainable products. Companies that are still using outdated and unsustainable products aren’t only hurting the planet, they are also hurting their customer experience.?
Here are five industries in desperate need of sustainable product innovation.?
1 . Dry Cleaning
Send your favorite blouse or suit to the dry cleaners, and it almost always comes back in a large plastic bag. Each year, an estimated 300 hundred million pounds of single-use plastic dry cleaning bags end up in America’s landfills. Most dry cleaning bags aren’t recyclable and end up cluttering landfills and oceans. Instead, the dry cleaning industry needs to offer more sustainable options like reusable or compostable clothes bags. Many customers want to reuse the same garment bag instead of getting bogged down by endless plastic. A number of startups have created reusable fabric garment bags to replace the traditional plastic options, but those advancements are slowly catching on. At the very least, dry cleaners need to expand the practice of making it possible and convenient for customers to recycle their plastic garment bags.
2 . Produce
Who knew eating healthy could be bad for the environment? Produce itself is a good choice, but the packaging around it can be harmful. Together, food and food packaging account for almost 45% of the materials landfilled in the United States. Many stores sell fresh items pre-packaged in plastic containers or Styrofoam trays, and loose fruits and vegetables are often put in plastic bags. Those bags are then most often thrown away when shoppers get home, creating huge amounts of waste. Many stores, including Target, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and Costco, are making progress to reduce the amount of food packaging, but there is still an incredible amount of work to be done. In a report from Greenpeace rating the 20 leading U.S. supermarkets on their efforts to eliminate single-use plastic, no store scored more than 35 points out of a possible 100. Moving past the abundance of produce waste will require reusable materials and containers and a mindset shift for manufacturers, grocers and shoppers.
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3 . Baby Food
Single-serve baby food containers may make it convenient to feed a child, but they come at an environmental cost. The biggest culprit are single-serve squeeze pouches, some of which can’t be recycled. By 2025, consumers will spend more than $115 billion on baby food pouches, and the majority of them end up in landfills where they take hundreds of years to decompose. Other baby food containers aren’t much better, with glass bottles requiring nearly 1300% more water to produce than the plastic pouches. So many baby food fixtures, from formula containers to breast milk storage bags, are designed for single use. The industry as a whole has made some improvements with recyclable plastic, but there is still much more progress to be made. A widespread move away from single-use plastics to reusable options that are still convenient could have a dramatic impact on the environment.
4 . Coffee
Coffee pods are a popular drink option, but the single-use containers often end clogging landfills. Most pods are technically recyclable, but only when the various materials are separated by plastic, aluminum and the paper filter. The actual pod itself can’t be recycled as a whole. Some brands are moving towards refillable and reusable coffee pods, which require more work for consumers but are better for the environment. There is a light at the end of the tunnel—Keurig, the leading producer of coffee pods, is moving to have all of its pods be completely recyclable.
Another culprit is coffee cups. An estimated 16 billion disposable coffee cups are used each year, and the vast majority of them aren’t recycled. Most hot coffee cups can’t be recycled because they are made with a plastic lining. Many coffee chains will fill containers that customers bring from home or serve coffee in mugs that can be washed and reused, but many of those practices have been paused because of COVID.
5 . Takeout Restaurants
Over the past year, consumers have turned to takeout more than ever before, but the packaging is a large problem. A typical takeout order includes food packaged in Styrofoam or plastic containers, paper napkins and plastic cutlery, all in a plastic bag. All of that waste adds up. Every year, Americans throw out 120 billion disposable cups, or 363 cups per person. During the pandemic, the amount of food packaging waste has grown tremendously due to the combination of a boost of food takeout and delivery and restaurants having to slow their reusable options to stop the spread of the virus.
?Many restaurants are moving towards recyclable items. McDonalds is working to make all of its packaging from renewable sources by 2025, and others are following suit. The added cost of sustainable materials can be overwhelming for smaller restaurants, especially after a volatile year.?
?These five industries are due for major transformations to create better and more eco-friendly products and packaging. In many cases, these efforts will require a major overhaul, but the innovation can be worth it to help save our planet.
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