Sustainable Packaging: Environmental Friendliness and Profitability Can Be Bedfellows

Abstract

In this age of consumerism, the majority of nations in the world are suffering from the increasing amount of packaging waste; while many scholars have developed ways to make packagings sustainable, such as biodegradable plastics and recycled materials, most companies refuse to use environmentally friendly packaging because they believe it will decrease their profits. In this essay, Song shows three reasons why companies can pursue environmentally friendly packaging and business profits at the same time: these reasons include positive public reputation produced by environmentally friendly packaging, optimization of the amount of packaging material used, and profitable cost-benefit ratio of sustainable packaging. Therefore, companies must incorporate sustainable packaging, with the incentive of profitability, to protect the environment and to increase companies’ profit.