Eco-Packaging Development: Integrated Design Approaches

Abstract

The opportuneness of reinforcing strategies for the quantitative reduction and reuse of packaging, which in general terms is the most efficient for environmental protection, requires an intervention which begins at the phases of conception and design of the packaging, and necessitates the reasoned and effective management of an ever broader spectrum of design requisites.Hence it is necessary to operate following integrated design processes which take into consideration all the stages of the entire life cycle of the packaging, from manufacture to disposal, balancing a wide range of factors and including all the environmental aspects, beyond the direct competencies of the various actors involved in this life cycle (packaging manufacturer, packer, logistics manager, consumer, designated disposer). In this way the most effective environmental strategies with which it is possible to intervene (quantitative reduction, reuse, recovery) can be directly linked to design choices, and thus translated into true and proper design strategies. Such strategies, operating on the variables associated with the physical dimensions of the package (system architecture, materials, shape and significant geometric parameters of components), allow the pursuit of the desired environmental requisites to be incorporated into design practice.An effective management of the requisites for the eco-sustainable design of packaging becomes therefore a key factor for a successful development of design solution, and must allow to make choices which implicitly take into account the various factors in play and the potential conflicts between them.This chapter proposes a methodological statement which involves:

• Integrating conventional requisites (associated with the primary functions of protection, containment, handling, and transport) with environmental requisites, in the development of tools and metrics guiding the designer in choices on design variables

• Extending the concept of environmental impact of packaging (which is most commonly limited to the quantity of waste generated and the effects resulting from the use of polluting or toxic substances)

• Analyzing the consequences that design choices have on the environmental impact of the packaging over its entire life cycle, as well as its economic sustainability and functional efficiency

Having developed these premises, this chapter proposes two different, but complementary, approaches for an integrated design which interpret the exigencies noted above. The first one consists in an integrated approach to the optimal choice of materials, allowing the management of the main design parameters (materials, significant geometric parameters), taking into account the various typologies of requisites: functional (weight-bulk efficiency of the package), economic, environmental (quantitative reduction, containment of some factors of impact).This first approach, which has some intrinsic limitations, can be complemented by a second more complete approach. Integrating the techniques of Life Cycle Assessment in the packaging design, this second approach consists in the design of packaging life cycle, as it allows to take into account, in an organic manner, the diverse environmental implications deriving from design choices, with regards to all the processes constituting the package life cycle.Finally, examples of their application are presented, illustrating the use and highlighting the potential of the tools proposed.