Ahead of this year’s European Paper Bag Day, Paper Bag Co compared different European countries in terms of their interest in ‘sustainable packaging,’ using Google data to reveal which countries were searching for the term in their respective countries and languages the most, combined with each country’s recycling rate.
Apparently, the research shows that Northern Europe (Norway, the UK, Republic of Ireland, Denmark and Sweden) tend to Google terms around sustainable packaging more than their counterparts. This is combined with an above European average recycling rate (43% for Northern Europe vs 33% for the dataset as a whole), possibly showing an increased awareness of how packaging may impact the environment.
The company says that Germany is ‘by far the best nation when it comes to their recycling rate’, but there is a lower number of people searching for sustainable packaging solutions for their businesses when compared to other nations close to them, both geographically and in terms of population. Paper Bag Co. states that while this could indicate a lack of awareness, it could also indicate that ‘sustainable packaging practices are so integrated into day-to-day business life that it is almost assumed that packaging in Germany will be ‘sustainable’’.
Reportedly, the UK’s recycling rate is not particularly impressive when compared to some of their counterparts in terms of population size, but there is a high volume when it comes to the amount of people searching for sustainable packaging. Longer term Google Trends data shows that ‘sustainable packaging’ as a term is growing in the UK, showing an 93% increase from October 2018 to 2024.
Paper Bag Co. states that this increase in volume shows growth opportunities amongst UK businesses to expand into sustainable packaging, which can be more effectively recycled. It hopes this will help increase the recycling rate and result in sustainable competitiveness with the rest of Europe. The company’s interactive chart showing its findings can be found here.
Google released a Plastic Free Packaging Design Guide in July, intended to help the consumer electronics sector phase out mixed-material packaging and transition into plastic-free alternatives while balancing product protection, accessibility and responsible disposal. One example is the company’s removal of plastic shrink wrap from its boxes, resulting in a redesigned structure and specialized adhesives applied to its fibre-based, tamper-evident seal closures.
This month, Saahas Zero Waste announced its use of Google’s open-source machine learning model, CircularNet, hoping to sort plastic waste more effectively, responsibly manage over 500 tonnes of waste every day by 2026, and help improve recycling rates in India. The company plans to use CircularNet to alleviate strain on landfills by more effectively sorting recyclable from non-recyclable plastic waste and diverting around 90% of recyclable waste away from landfill.
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Publish date : 2024-10-23 04:32:00
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