Bubble trouble: AmorePacific turns to paper packaging to strengthen sustainability standards

By Amanda Lim

- Last updated on GMT

Bubble trouble: AmorePacific turns to paper packaging to strengthen sustainability standards
South Korean beauty conglomerate AmorePacific has pledged to use paper packaging over bubble wrap, in response to consumer concerns over plastic waste and its environmental damage.

The new eco-friendly packaging materials, geami and papillon, are shock-friendly despite being made of paper.

Ethical packaging

It took months of research and testing before the company found the right eco-friendly materials for the job.

According to AmorePacific, the paper packaging costs two to three times more than traditional bubble wrap and adds more time to the packaging process.

The firm said such disadvantages did not matter as long as it benefitted the environment.

Replacing bubble wrap is only one of the eco-friendly packaging initiatives AmorePacific has applied.

Last year, the company started using sustainably-produced paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) on the boxes of 500 different products.

Additionally, it now uses smaller and slimmer non-colour coated boxes when possible and favours paper tape over vinyl.

Some of its products, such as the Mamonde Brightening Cover Powder Cushion, also underwent a redesign to reduce its plastic use.

The redesign reduced the weight of the product by 10.7%, which saved the company from using 0.26 tonnes of plastic.

AmorePacific also brings its eco-friendly principles to its retail outlets by building using eco-friendly interior materials in its stores.

In 2017, the firm launched an “upcycling store” under its Innisfree brand.

The brand collected 230,000 recycled bottles which were used in 70% of the store’s interior finishing. Additionally, they were used to build furniture and other objects.

Eco-friendly and visually appealing

One of the challenges of environmentally-friendly packaging is ensuring the aesthetic quality of its products as packaging design can motivate consumers to buy products.

The company said that when it first started using its eco-friendly packaging materials, consumers were not impressed by its appearance.

However, once they understood the sentiment behind it, consumers began to show their support online with positive comments.

To overcome these challenges, its packaging materials research team had to continuously develop packaging that reflects the company’s commitment to the environment while preserving its aesthetic standards.

A few simple ways the team does this is by modifying the design of containers to reduce plastic used, making containers transparent for easy recycling and by using paper to make dual structure containers.

Since aesthetic standards cannot be ignored, AmorePacific changed the design of containers to reduce the amount of plastic used, made transparent containers for easy recycling, and used paper to make dual structure containers.

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