It’s time to educate yourself as a designer in the materials you design with and stop leaving the material selection to suppliers or in the hands of vendors.

As packaging designers we create memorable user experiences, we compete to the death on the shelf and protect products to deliver revenue to the brands we partner with. Brands are also starting to take responsibility for their packaging waste, even though the current state of our recycling infrastructure is far too confusing to sort out in a single article.

That said, we can’t afford to remain uninformed about the terminology used to differentiate alternative-plastic substrates as we work towards closing the loop on sustainable packaging. The future of packaging is just getting started, so let’s dive into these terms and shed light on the reality of these labels.