Written by Ayesha Abdullah
Loop’s Vision of Sustainability in Packaging
Jasmine Druffner is an Industrial Designer and a Durable Packaging Designer at Loop, a company focused on creating reusable packaging. Their fight is not against plastic, rather single use items. The question that Loop strives to answer is: “How do we solve the unintended consequences of disposability while maintaining its virtues?”
Changes the Ownership of Packaging
Loop allows for packaging to go from a liability to an asset. Instead of being addressed as having a Cost of Goods Sold when the product is bought, it would be an asset as the product could be reusable.
Durable Packaging Key Design Principles
The key design principles outlined by Jasmine are key to optimizing logistics, cleaning, durability and material life cycle. The three steps to ensuring Durable packaging is a Life Cycle Analysis, Cleanability, and Durability. Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) ensures the recyclability at the end of its life cycle. Cleanability ensures that the product can be cleaned without damaging it. Durability ensures the product can be recycled at least ten times.
Jasmine went over another key to durable packaging through offering more value to consumers. This is done by premiumization and innovation. For example, Häagen-Dazs containers can be created with stainless steel packaging that creates sustainability as well as give an expensive feel for consumers.
Designs that age gracefully is another point made in relation to durability. This means the packaging embraces the wear and tear it may endure such as scratches or dents, usually seen on bottles or plastic. Heineken beer bottles are often designed in a way that the more scratches the bottle as it accentuates the logo.
Custom Packaging, Custom Experiences
Having custom packaging for consumers as well as Durable Packaging, allows brands to re-think their packaging and improve consumer experiences. Häagen-Dazs successfully used this approach in their custom stainless steel packaging that allowed for the ice cream to stay colder for a longer period of time outside of the fridge. Consumers were able to pick between an array of different designs for the packaging.
An Engine of Innovation
Loop’s innovation is seen through their reusability through different categories or products, while maintaining a strong customer experience. Jasmine’s key takeaways from Loop were to; see packaging as an asset, ensure reusability through reusable materials as it drives innovation, and to challenge categories and systems.