Consumer interest in personal care products that are eco-friendly, sustainable, and healthy has been a key driver for growth in the organic personal care market. Today, many consumers prioritize natural ingredients, cruelty-free testing, and sustainable skincare packaging.

Sustainable packaging helps address environmental issues faced by many industries and meet the demands of consumers. Many brands have begun addressing these issues—including plastic pollution, resource depletion, and waste management—by adopting sustainable packaging. Doing so allows brands to demonstrate their commitment to environmental stewardship and responsibility.

More and more brands are experiencing the benefits of adopting sustainable packaging—not only for them but also for their customers. Read on to find out more about the most significant benefits.

1. Environmental Impact

The positive impact that sustainable packaging has on the environment is one of its most important selling points. Sustainable packaging follows a set of criteria that determines their sustainability, including:

• A renewable or recyclable source of material.
• Being sourced, manufactured, and transported using renewable energy.
• The utilization of a circular economy.

Meeting these criteria helps to reduce a company's carbon footprint and improve resource conversation.

2. Creative and Attractive Skincare Packaging

Current branding in the personal care industry emphasizes simplicity and minimalism. This trend also leans towards minimizing the ingredients used in products as consumers become more conscious of what they use on their bodies.

Sustainable packaging offers brands an opportunity to influence consumer choices through attractive and creative packaging. Many sustainable packaging options also offer innovative design elements that can help enhance brand appeal.

3. Brand Storytelling

Packaging can be one of a brand’s most effective communicators. Your product’s package is the first thing a consumer sees on the shelf, which means it needs to quickly relay values through a brand’s story. This is especially important when considering the short amount of time consumers take to make decisions. According to a Nielsen case study, some consumers make in-store buying decisions in less than six seconds.

A strong, compelling brand story goes beyond an initial decision—it can also help build brand loyalty and develop a consumer base that continues to purchase over time.

4. Consumer Interests Beyond Ingredients

Consumers are no longer only interested in purchasing products that have safe and sustainable ingredients—they’re now becoming interested in sustainable packaging, too. In fact, consumers are willing to spend nearly 10 percent more on sustainable products, including packaging.

Reducing waste, CO2 emissions, and energy use are just a few of the benefits consumers consider to be good reasons to invest in sustainable packaging.

Beyond environmental benefits, the material to make sustainable packaging provides additional benefits that make the packaging easier and more effective to use, including precision dispensing and spill-proof features.

5. Regulatory and Industry Standards

As regulations and industry standards become more stringent, certifications and eco-labels are becoming more present on sustainable packaging. It’s one thing to tell a consumer that they are environmentally friendly and another to prove their commitment through third-party evaluations.

Compliance to these standards can benefit companies in terms of market credibility and consumer trust. They can also contribute to brand storytelling by signaling to consumers’ values.

6. Economic Benefits

A number of economic benefits are available to companies that switch to sustainable packaging through reduced material usage, energy savings, and even shipping costs through a flat shipping model for flexible packaging.

Sustainable packaging can also provide a competitive advantage in the marketplace because of consumers’ embrace of sustainable products.

Meet Sustainability Demands With AeroFlexx

The six benefits of sustainable skincare packaging are also the benefits you can experience with the AeroFlexx Pak, our sustainable packaging that uses flexible material but is designed to act like a rigid bottle so that consumers can experience the best qualities of both in a single solution.

Our Pak also uses anti-counterfeit and tamper-proof features to enhance brand protection and packaging security. These features make it nearly impossible to open without clear indicators or to replicate because of our highly controlled, proprietary production equipment.