Four subtle ways tech giants have been changing packaging to be more eco-friendly

If you’ve bought more than one cell phone, TV, speaker, or games console over the past ten years, you might have noticed some subtle changes in how they arrive at your door or how they’re handed over to you in-store.

Packaging is one of the aspects of buying technology or gadgets that might not make the headlines or the online reviews – but for one very big reason, it probably should do. That is because the packaging has been slowly changing over the past decade to become much more environmentally friendly.

While everything 100 years ago might have come in a brown paper bag, the second half of the 20th century brought about plastic bags, single-use plastic packaging, and non-recyclable packing fillers such as polystyrene and plastic bubble wrap. Little by little, it appears it’s the tech giants who are beginning to lead the way in reversing this change. 

• Smaller boxes and paper bags

The first and most noticeable change is that technology is coming in tighter and smaller packaging than it used to. 

Taking Apple as an example, there is absolutely no wasted space in an iPad or an iPhone box, with the device sitting flush to the lid and the width and height of the box virtually matching the size of the device’s screen. This simple change allows the company to use fewer raw materials in the creation of their packaging. The past few years and the introduction of a plastic bag charge in countries around the world has also seen companies such as Apple return to paper or cardboard bags for items bought in-store.

• Using recyclable materials

The aforementioned downsized boxes are also increasingly being made using recyclable materials. This allows the buyer to recycle the boxes at home – unless they intend to hold onto them for future resale value – and throw less packaging in the trash.

It also increases the amount of recycling that the tech company can do on their site. On this scale, companies use huge recycling balers that compact cardboard into more manageable-sized blocks – a world away from having a small recycling bin at the bottom of your kitchen. Technology giant Amazon are cited as one of the companies that use cardboard recycling balers from recyclingbalers.com, a reputable used baler dealer in the United States.

• Making content downloadable

Tech companies are also reducing their waste creation by allowing software and games to be fully downloadable online, rather than having to sell every development they introduce in small plastic boxes as many people became used to throughout the 1990s and 2000s. Microsoft Office and PlayStation games all used to come complete with plastic packaging – now, users can download them directly to their device. 

While this is clearly the direct decision of the tech companies to make sales easier, the reduction in packaging is actually part-driven by consumer awareness, demonstrating the power of environmental movements.

• Reuse as well as recycle

Companies are not just making packaging recyclable but reusable too. Samsung’s eco-friendly packaging for televisions comes with easy-to-cut and fold boxes, giving customers instructions and encouraging them to form them into tables and pet houses.

Intuitive and inventive designs like this are surely a sign of things to come as tech companies strive to make their packaging less and less damaging to the environment.