It’s no surprise that packaging waste has become one of the biggest issues of this decade, mainly due to its proliferation and single use.
Due to poor waste management systems around the globe, the majority of plastic packaging that is sent to landfills ends up in our natural environment. Tons of plastics are dumped in the ocean every year, threatening wildlife, altering ecosystems and posing risks to human health.
As I look to improve and set our sustainability goals and values, I reached out to the Pet Sustainability Coalition to help guide me in our mission. Each year, we try to embrace change that can align with fostering a sense of responsibility. And while Austin and Kat is a small company, I’ve always said, small changes can inevitably lead to big changes.
When I spoke to our packaging manufacturer (here is the US - yes, US! not China), Epac, I asked what we could do to make our packaging more environmentally friendly...
And one of the simplest and smartest things we could do to reduce waste, was to include an eyemark on our packaging.
It's the funny little white triangle on the back corner of some of our packaging. Known as an eyemark, and it’s what the printer’s machinery uses to determine where the packaging starts and ends. It’s not very pretty, but it’s functional.
By keeping it in place, the printer can fit multiple prints of our packaging on one sheet, reducing waste. To get rid of it would mean we’d only be printing one package per sheet - and wasting the rest of the material!
It’s no surprise that we are all wanting to rethink the traditional form of packaging. I hope that our “small” endeavor can help other manufacturers make changes to help offset what is one of the biggest challenges we face today.