Metsä Board Announces Better With Less Design Challenge Award Winners

Metsä Board, a producer of premium fresh fiber paperboard, has announced the winners of its latest Better with Less Design Challenge. The third iteration of the challenge saw 124 entrants from 27 countries, asking designers worldwide to conceptualize zero-waste, circular, and reusable packaging made with fewer materials.

This year’s competition features two 1st place winners, “Kid’s Headphones Packaging,” by Kitty Ching from Australia, and “Cardboard Protecting Filler,” by Marcin Michalski, Monika Klimpel, and Adrian Olejnik from Poland. The third-place winner is “Reshape” by Dawid Thiel.

“Choosing the winner from such excellent entries was an incredibly difficult decision, so the jury decided to select two first-place winners,” says Ilkka Harju, chairman of the jury and packaging services director at Metsä Board, via press release.

Ching’s “Kid’s Headphones Packaging” is easy to open, made from paperboard, recyclable, and designed to store the headphones. The packaging can be recycled, sure, but the box also serves as storage and protects the headphones, extending the life of the packaging.

“Cardboard Protecting Filler” are flat pieces of cardboard that form strong and lightweight strut beams that keep delicate products like flat panel monitors safe in transit. The beams also interlock, and TVs, monitors, tablets, and laptops can slide into an inner channel to further secure them inside the box.

“Reshape” is a new take on shippers that minimizes the number of packaging items used and stocked. The mailers can be turned into one of three shapes, envelope, pillow, and box. “Reshape” reduces the amount and kinds of different shipping-related materials and lowers costs, including transportation expenses from shipping boxes filled mostly with air or packing filler.

Additionally, Metsä Board awarded an internship to Patrick Walby, designer of the “Zero Waste Medication Blister Pack,” which aims to replace conventional plastic and aluminum pharmaceutical packaging with a paperboard blister pack alternative.

Finally, Metsä Board announced two honorable mentions. “Totally Bananas,” by Max Gubbins, a zero-waste solution that “tattoos” a label directly on the fruit by piercing its skin. “F’lover,” by Mine Koca, eliminates multilayered flower packaging with a single piece of cardboard that is attractive and suitable for gifting.

To see all the finalists and learn more about the winning projects, visit www.betterwithless.org.