Google Aims to Guide Other Companies in Eliminating Plastic from Packaging

The US tech giant Google is set to publish a comprehensive 70-page guide in June outlining the redesign of its boxes, coatings, enclosures, and labels. This initiative comes as part of Google's ambitious plan to eliminate plastic from its consumer electronics packaging, a goal they aim to achieve six months ahead of their self-imposed 2025 deadline.

Google first announced its 'plastic-free' pledge in October 2020 and is now preparing to share its innovative approach with other companies. David Bourne, Google's lead sustainability strategist, revealed this plan during last week's session at Circularity 24, a prominent GreenBiz event.

The launch of the Pixel 8 smartphone in October marked the first product to embrace this new plastic-free packaging strategy, showcasing Google's commitment to sustainable practices.

"You might think it's sort of strange to enable other companies, potentially to enable other competitors," Bourne said. "But our point of view on sustainability is that it really should be a collaborative endeavour. Innovation should be shared in sustainability because if we sincerely want to create a sustainable future, then just a handful of companies being more sustainable isn't going to achieve that."

Ensuring Design Changes Don't Frustrate Consumers

The guide's concept began with Google's team working on its heaviest consumer product, TVs, which can weigh up to 40 pounds, according to Katy Bolan, Google's lead for environmental sustainability.

Although Google doesn't manufacture televisions, it collaborated with its manufacturing partners to achieve this goal.

One major challenge was ensuring the design changes wouldn't frustrate consumers. Miguel Arevalo, Google's packaging innovation lead, emphasized the need for these changes to meet Google's aesthetic standards while also being easily disposable within existing recycling systems. "It's a bad experience if you have to think about it," he said.

Google's Key Design Considerations

The new packaging is predominantly paper- and fiber-based, ensuring easy recyclability. This shift required Google engineers, designers, and suppliers to rethink several aspects, including lamination and coatings, box assembly, enclosures, and labels.

Key Challenges Faced by Google:

~ Durability and Reliability Without Plastic Shrink Wrap: Assess how eliminating plastic shrink wrap would impact package durability and reliability.

~ Adjusting Size and Shape for Drop Dynamics: Determining if adjustments to size or shape were necessary to accommodate 'drop dynamics' or how an item behaves when dropped.

~ Selecting New Coatings and Inks: Finding new coatings and inks that meet Google's branding requirements was a significant challenge. Over 50 solutions were reviewed, and suppliers that weren't transparent about their environmental impacts were quickly eliminated.

~ Sealing and Waterproofing the Box: Innovating new ways to seal and waterproof the box to ensure it remains closed during transit.

~ Closure Labels' Reliability and Ease of Removal: Ensuring the reliability of closure labels and making them easy to remove was another critical consideration.

~ Future Implications of Substitutions: Carefully weighing the future implications of material substitutions, particularly for chemicals that could inadvertently increase greenhouse gas emissions.

These considerations highlight the complexity and thoroughness of Google's approach to sustainable packaging design, aiming to balance environmental impact with consumer satisfaction and product integrity.

One way to justify the extra cost

New paper-based packaging is likely more expensive than plastic since they are produced at a different scale. "When you first achieve something, it will be the most expensive version," said Bourne.

That increase can be easier to support when considered as part of the total cost or if the expense is likely to decrease over time, the Google executives said. "We also see this as an investment," Bourne said. "We are looking at sustainability as an augmentation of the consumer experience."