By: Emma Bailey
Sure, we could have chosen some of Dieline’s favorite plastic-free packaging designs from 2023, but why not leave it to the experts?
Our pals at PlasticFree have been steadily unleashing their own end-of-year content extravaganza, and we’re republishing their favorite projects over the last 365 days. Check it out, and dont’ forget to head on over to PlasticFree!
Next in our roundup of 2023 is a focus on packaging, the industry using 40% of all global plastic. This year, designers looked to minimize material use and waste, spearheading an anti-packaging movement that sees packs become less and less impactful and necessary.
Also included is a carton with built-in bacteria detection and a much-needed redesign of the toilet paper roll.
So, without further ado, discover our top 10 packs from the year!
Ecoalf
Fashion brand Ecoalf launched its waterless wellness collection. Comprising six products, including soap, shampoo, moisturizer, deodorant, lip balm, and SPF 30, the range is entirely powdered or solid in format to remove water from the formulation process. The brand’s products come with reusable and refillable aluminum cases, with refills delivered in paper or bioplastic pouches. Water has been replaced by waxes and starches as carriers for active ingredients, as well as delivering sebum-regulating and moisturizing properties.
Boucheron
French jewelry brand Boucheron redesigned its collection of jewelry boxes. Taking two years to develop, the new collection of cases comes from just two materials—aluminum and wool felt—a distinct reduction in material use compared to the original box’s eleven.
Both materials were chosen for their natural origin and high recyclability rates, while the Responsible Wool Standard certified felt requires no gluing or stitching. The brand also redesigned the closure, removing the hinge mechanism associated with jewelry boxes and simplifying the case-opening system so users lift the lid off the base to reveal the jewels inside.
Mælk
Mælk is a concept product from Taboo Branding designed to cut down on milk waste. Using smart technology, the carton design visually alerts consumers that their milk has spoiled. Over four days, an image of a bottle slowly appears outside of the carton. Once fully revealed, the milk is past its best. At this stage, the corner of the carton can get opened, releasing a bacterial powder into the remaining milk that, when left overnight, transforms the milk into drinkable kefir.
One Good Thing
One Good Thing from the UK packages its pocket-sized, cold-pressed raw snack bars in edible packaging. Made almost entirely from beeswax and mixed with natural ingredients, the packaging protects the bar while in transit. But it can also be eaten alongside its contents for a waste-free snacking experience. Available in boxes of six or twelve—and with seven flavors to choose from, including Apple & Blackcurrant and Lemon Drizzle—the bars feature an edible rice paper label and can be washed before eating without going soggy.
Gaeastar
Berlin’s GaeaStar replaces single-use plastic cups and on-the-go food packaging with clay-based alternatives. Inspired by the Indian tradition of Kulhars—disposable terracotta cups used to sell Indian Chai tea for around 5,000 years—the products are made using additive manufacturing, otherwise known as 3D printing. Comprised of clay, water, and salt, the products can be crushed after use and added to soil (and going back to nature harmlessly). The company offers a Dry & Semisolid Range of bowls for salads, ice cream, and tapas, as well as a Liquid Range of cups designed for hot and cold beverages.
Notpla x Mack
Seaweed pioneer Notpla teamed up with biotech cleaning solutions supplier Mack to announce an industry-first laundry detergent sachet made from Notpla Film. Mack is phasing out the PVA casing used for its BioPods, replacing it with Notpla’s water-soluble seaweed film. The laundry pods dissolve in water, leaving no microplastics behind. Notpla Film is a plant-based flexible packaging alternative that replaces plastic and bioplastic films.
Perrier-Jouët
French champagne house Maison Perrier-Jouët unveiled its Perrier-Jouët Belle Epoque Cocoon, a gift box made with Paper pulp and 5% vine cuttings. Launched in time for Mother’s Day in the US, the gift boxes get made from 100% natural fibers responsibly sourced from certified sustainable forests in Northern Europe. The simplistic design of a spray of florals minimizes ink consumption, while the matte finish eradicates the need for a varnish coating. The casing can be easily recycled in the paper waste stream; it’s also 30% lighter (55g) than the previous version and reduces transport emissions.
Bambox
Tel Aviv-based Bambox reinvented the toilet paper roll this year. The redesigned daily essential removes excess air from the roll variety, which—according to the brand’s founder—has air between every sheet, air in the cylindrical hole in the center, and air around the outer curves when packed in a shipping box. Although unchanged for 130 years, this design is economically and environmentally flawed. And so Bambox evolved it. The product sees zig-zagging paper packed inside a tissue-like box with cereal box-like openings, allowing the paper to get easily pulled out and for the container to hang on a standard toilet roll holder.
Traceless
Launched in 2022 but gaining plenty of momentum in 2023, Traceless is a fossil fuel-free alternative to single-use plastics made from polymers extracted from agricultural feedstock waste. Traceless sources its feedstock from agricultural plant processing side streams locally available in high amounts and in many regions. The base Traceless material comes in granulate form. It can be converted by the larger plastic, converting, and packaging industry on standard machinery into different applications (like injection molding and extrusions).
Muj?
German biomaterial startup Muj? developed a range of Algae-based flexible packaging materials. The company turned to fast-growing kelp to create non-toxic and water-soluble fibers, nets, and foils with a range of transparencies, textures, thicknesses, and colors. Inspired by nature, which has “always designed packaging” that readily breaks down into nature’s basic building blocks—such as fruit peels, nuts, and shells—Muj?’s 100% bio-based materials come designed to disappear. Muj? is in the pilot stage and is hoping to launch its products to market in 2024. The Berlin-based company’s name, Muj?, is a Japanese concept that refers to the impermanence of all things.