Innovative packaging design using sustainable product cuts plastic use
Enterprising Business Card Boxes: How innovative packaging design, using sustainable materials, is helping an organisation to cut its plastic use
Commercial Foundation is a social enterprise established by Commercial Group to help disadvantaged young people develop work and life skills.
They challenged us to create a plastic-free business card box that can be used to mail out customer orders, without the need for secondary packaging.
Enterprising Business Card Boxes: How innovative packaging design, using sustainable materials, is helping an organisation to cut its plastic use
Commercial Foundation is a social enterprise established by Commercial Group to help disadvantaged young people develop work and life skills.
They challenged us to create a plastic-free business card box that can be used to mail out customer orders, without the need for secondary packaging.
The customer’s challenge
Printing skills are part of the #NoLimits course run by Commercial Foundation, and the printing of business cards is one of the services that outside businesses can purchase to help support the scheme.
Once printed, orders for business cards were being packed into standard 70 mm-high plastic business card boxes and then into a bubble-lined mailing bag for posting. As well as not being very environmentally-friendly the packages were also too big to fit through letterboxes, which could be inconvenient for customers.
A drive by the Commercial Group to reduce its use of plastics prompted the Commercial Foundation to seek a more user and environmentally-friendly alternative.
"The whole project, from the initial consultation
to roll-out took just six weeks."
Ian Whitcombe
Product Manager - Packaging
The Antalis solution
With our experts, we thought up an 0427 style box with four compartments, made from FSC-certified board. The customer address can be affixed to one side of the box and a message from Commercial Foundation is printed on the other along with environmental information. At just 25 mm high, the box can fit through a letterbox.
The process
- Already a regular supplier of paper and packaging to the business, Antalis was aware of Commercial’s desire to eliminate the use of plastic. After taking the time to understand the complete process around their business card service, the Antalis account manager for Commercial brought in the expertise of the packaging technologists to see if they could design a solution from scratch.
- Using the information gathered, Antalis’ packaging technologists put forward three options: a box and lid design and two variations based on the 0427 pizza box structure.
- The client’s preferred design was put through its paces to assess ease of assembly, durability, and postability.
- Following the successful trial, Commercial Foundation has rolled out the new box design.
Advantages of the solution
Customer experience
More convenient and easier to recycle. The cardboard can be used to store the business cards. Aligns with public demand for more environmentally friendly products.
Environmental
Eliminated use of plastic and secondary materials. FSC-certified box can be recycled easily.
Cost-saving
Although the new box design is slightly more expensive than the plastic box, the elimination of the secondary packaging has resulted in an overall cost reduction.
