When sustainable packaging requires yin and yang thinking

摘要

There are two big picture catch phrases competing for the attention of the packaging industry: Sustainable Materials Management and The Circular Economy. Which is better for the environment? Which is better for your bottom line? Wait, grasshopper. The answer isn't one or the other. It's both. Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) is a framework for minimizing the environmental impacts related to the consumption of products and services. It is based on the concept of lifecycle thinking, whereby the cradle-to-grave chain of inputs, throughputs and outputs of a specific product or service is measured, analyzed, compared and evaluated.