With the increase in urgency from the environmental crisis and consumer demand for sustainable practices, packaging companies and trash services are being pushed to rethink how they operate. Each controls part of the consumption process, but when they work together, it results in reduced waste, improved recyclability, and increased economic benefit for both parties. Stronger partnerships between these two industries are needed now more than ever to shift towards a collaborative outlook.
Why Collaboration Between Trash Services and Packaging Companies Matters
Collaboration across these industries is more important than ever. As of 2023, global municipal solid waste generation is expected to increase from 2.1 billion tonnes to 3.8 billion tonnes by 2050, with much of it coming from packaging materials. A lack of collaboration between the packaging designers and the collectors, processors, and handlers of waste results in increased contamination of recycling systems and decreased recovery of recyclable material.
Packaging that is inconsistent or incompatible with the infrastructure of recycling plants will result in more landfill disposal and inflated operational expenses for recycling services. However, when a waste service can provide feedback to packaging companies about what works for a waste handler and what doesn’t, it helps improve the design of packaging materials.
Key Benefits of Stronger Partnerships
This kind of collaboration provides environmental and financial benefits with measurable advantages.
Streamlined Waste Sorting and Collection
The main challenge for trash service providers is contamination, which occurs when non-recyclable items or items that are impractical to separate from other materials are mixed in with recyclables. The mix of recyclable items with hard-to-separate materials is often the result of poorly designed packaging using multiple materials or a lack of clear labeling.
Improved Recycling Rates and Material Recovery
Packaging that is designed for easy disposal at the end of the life cycle will ultimately lead to a better chance of recovering and reusing. An example of this is that when brands move from utilizing plastic laminates in packaging to utilizing mono-materials like polyethylene, the ease of recycling and sorting those packages is greater.
Switching to recyclable or compostable packaging can only be effective if the local infrastructure has the ability to process, inspect, and sort it, which ultimately means collaborating with trash services is critical to this conversation.
Cost Efficiency for Both Parties
Good packaging design ultimately reduces the burden on trash service providers and reduces the total cost of processing waste. It can also help corporations save funds by reducing the materials used to package items. Furthermore, partnerships can create opportunities for joint investment, such as piloting reusable packaging programs where both partners have shared investment risk and return potential.
How Trash Services Influence Packaging Innovation
Packaging innovation is generally influenced upstream, but it succeeds downstream. Trash service providers who are on the front lines of material disposal are aware of the types of packaging that lead to bottlenecks, are not accepted, or add value to their service.
For example, they may report that certain colored plastics aren’t accepted by local recyclers, or that multi-layered pouches jam machines. When that information is relayed back to packaging companies, it leads to design improvements that make recycling simpler and more cost-effective.
The emergence of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws in states like California and Colorado has made this partnership necessary. Simply put, producers are now responsible for the post-consumer management of their packages, which makes it essential for them to consult with trash service providers to avoid penalties or inefficiencies.
How Technology is Bridging the Gap
Technology is playing a significant role in transforming collaboration, as data sharing, waste analytics, and smart infrastructure help both sectors improve decision-making.
Waste Monitoring and Tracking Systems
Modern waste disposal service providers are already tracking their service by utilizing GPS, RFID tags, and weight sensors to identify how much of each waste type they are collecting, where the waste is coming from, and how often the waste is being accessed. Data from smart bins or from optical sorters at the material recovery centre can be used to provide real-time tracking of how packaging is responding in the real world, comparing packaging that is recyclable in theory to the ones that are recyclable in practice. Packaging companies can then consider this data to redesign problematic formats and adopt materials that perform better.
Data Sharing Between Stakeholders
Shared dashboards and digital platforms are becoming much more widespread. They are more convenient for packaging companies, recycling facilities, and municipal disposal services to access and can be used to analyze shared metrics together, track trends, and forecast the volume of waste. Instead of working in silos, everyone operates on the same data helping align supply chain strategies with real-world disposal and recycling outcomes.
Common Challenges and How to Overcome Them
Even with the best intentions, there are often obstacles to collaboration, but being aware of common barriers makes it easier to work through them.
Misaligned Goals or Timelines
Packaging companies are thinking about aesthetics, cost, shelf life, and trash services are thinking about efficiency and how to achieve material recovery. This variation in focus can create a disconnect. To fix this, both parties must come together and synchronize early in the design stage, ideally during the development of the material. Joint pilot projects or jointly developed packaging standards can help align goals and timelines.
Lack of Communication or Transparency
Many packaging choices are made without consulting the people who manage the waste from the packaging after the product is used. This leads to aesthetically pleasing packages that aren’t recyclable in real-world conditions. Joint workshops, packaging design checklists, and standardized recyclability scorecards can eliminate this disconnect.
Actionable Steps to Build Stronger Partnerships
If you are unsure where to start to deepen the relationship between packaging businesses and trash service providers, you can begin by taking small steps that can help move both players from a state of coexistence to collaboration. These steps foster trust, close knowledge gaps, and drive mutual accountability, which are all essential ingredients for a truly circular economy:
- Host Joint Strategy Sessions: Quarterly meetings between packaging companies and waste disposal companies can surface overlooked problems and opportunities.
- Use Local Waste Compatibility Maps: These maps show what materials can be processed by each local facility and help design packaging accordingly.
- Participate in Industry Collaboratives: Join coalitions that bring stakeholders together to develop scalable solutions.
- Offer Shared Incentives: Create cost-sharing structures that reward both parties for reducing waste and increasing recovery.
- Create Open Feedback Loops: Include a formal mechanism for trash service providers to give packaging performance feedback post-launch.
Conclusion
The life cycle of packaging doesn’t stop when the product is opened. The packaging and trash service sectors have shared responsibilities in minimizing waste and maximizing value from materials. As regulations become stricter, consumers become savvier, and the costs of materials rise, collaboration will no longer be optional.
Faisal Ur Rehman is SEO advisor at Reusable Packaging News and co-owner and content editor at Forklift News. He brings more than six years of hands-on experience with Blue Box Packaging, a U.S. custom box manufacturer, where he gained firsthand knowledge of packaging production processes and manufacturing equipment. Faisal has also worked with Reusable Packaging News for more than four years. His coverage includes packaging compliance, reusable transport packaging, pharmaceutical packaging, material handling and supply chain logistics. Connect with Faisal on LinkedIn or view his journalist profile on Muck Rack.
