Georgia-Pacific Elevates Sustainable E-commerce with Eco-conscious Apparel Packaging
Amid the surging tide of e-commerce waste, Georgia-Pacific introduces an avant-garde, eco-friendly packaging solution for conscientious apparel retailers.
In 2018, plastic mailers accounted for a staggering 29 billion pounds of waste—making up nearly 28% of the U.S.'s yearly waste total, as reported by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In an even more concerning revelation, environmental advocacy group Oceana ascertained that Amazon alone contributed over 700 million pounds of this plastic packaging waste in 2021.
Addressing this pressing issue, Atlanta's eminent integrated packaging magnate, Georgia-Pacific, has expanded its revered EarthKraft portfolio. This new addition is a curbside recyclable, unpadded envelope, meticulously tailored for e-commerce shipments. Primarily designed for soft merchandise like apparel, which doesn't necessitate the protection of padding, these mailers come in two versatile sizes—11x15 inches and 13x18 inches.
Adam Gan, the visionary spearheading the mailer business as the Vice President of Commercial Development at Georgia-Pacific, remarked, “In today's digital era, an increasing cohort of consumers anticipate their online acquisitions to be sheathed in sustainable and easily recyclable packaging. The erstwhile prevalent plastic mailers, widely employed for apparel shipping, seem to falter in aligning with these heightened consumer standards. Brands are inadvertently squandering a golden chance to engender steadfast consumer allegiance. Our avant-garde EarthKraft unpadded mailers provide these brands a financially judicious alternative to resonate with the current eco-aware sentiment."
Gan's statement finds resonance in a 2020 study by McKinsey & Company, wherein an enlightening 43% of consumers pronounced ecological impact as a pivotal criterion influencing their packaging preferences in purchase decisions.
Since the debut of its recyclable mailers in 2020, Georgia-Pacific has successfully dispatched over a billion of these padded mailers to forward-thinking e-commerce enterprises keen on transitioning from plastic to paper. Amazon, a significant patron of the EarthKraft line, has already been deploying these unpadded mailers since mid-July. Though specific sales figures remain confidential, Amazon's strategic embrace of recyclable packaging has culminated in a commendable reduction of its global plastic usage by over 37,000 metric tons since 2020.
Conceived to supplant non-recyclable mixed material packaging, the EarthKraft unpadded mailers are meticulously crafted in Georgia-Pacific’s state-of-the-art facilities located in Jonestown, Pennsylvania; McDonough, Georgia; and Phoenix, Arizona. True to their eco-commitment, all EarthKraft mailers proudly bear the SFI Certified Sourcing emblem, attesting to their use of recycled content or materials sourced from certified forests. Consumers can effortlessly deposit these mailers into their recycling units or any designated collection point for paper or corrugated items.
Lauren Campen of Georgia-Pacific, in a conversation with the Sourcing Journal, underscored the monumental surge in e-commerce and the parallel upswing in demand for sustainable packaging. "Our suite of paper mailers," she said, "stands as a tangible testament to our dedication to proffering recyclable solutions, offsetting the prevalent use of mixed material or poly bubble mailers."
