Sustainability’s Impact on Consumer Purchasing Decisions

A recent Specright survey revealed consumers are more likely to recycle products if companies and brands include recycling instructions on packages. Image courtesy of Specright.

Brands play an important role in consumer education.

By Matthew Wright, CEO and Founder of Specright

Packaging sustainability has been a hot topic for many years. However, recently it has grown significantly as consumers are putting more emphasis on brands’ sustainability initiatives and reporting. This in turn can have a direct impact on brand perception and loyalty, impacting customer retention and acquisition.

Recent programs put in place by leading global companies reflect this sentiment as well. For example, Coca-Cola announced the launch of its pilot program in the UK where the company created a label-less Sprite bottle. The goal of this program is to simplify the recycling process while reducing the use of packaging materials. Additionally, other companies, such as Keurig Dr Pepper, are making significant strides in decreasing the amount of plastic packaging and replacing it with aluminum-free materials.

How might sustainability initiatives impact customer purchasing decisions and what can brands do to stay ahead of the curve? Let’s take a closer look.

Consumers Are Prioritizing Sustainability

Recent research reported by Harvard Business Review found that a main driver of consumer purchasing decisions is trust. One way to build that trust is through transparency around recyclability and sustainability.

According to a recent survey by my company, U.S. consumers indicated they have a desire to recycle and properly dispose of the products that they buy, and are ultimately making more sustainable purchasing decisions. However, they are looking to the brands they purchase from to tell them how to do so. Specifically, 82% of consumers say they are more likely to recycle products if companies and brands include the appropriate steps for how to recycle correctly on the packaging.

These findings further emphasize consumers’ current sentiment towards sustainability and the important role that a brand plays in educating consumers on recycling practices. Within this same survey, it was determined that sustainability will continue to be top of mind for consumers when it comes to their purchasing decisions throughout 2024. Specifically, 71% of consumers revealed that they are planning to make more sustainable purchasing decisions this year. This data goes to show just how sustainability can impact one’s purchasing decisions.

How Label-less Packaging Would Shake Up The Supply Chain

Packaging is critical to the makeup and overall appearance of a product. What would be the overall industry impact if more label-less products were implemented within the United States and abroad?

A major benefit in having fewer labels on products is that it would help in the recycling process. For example, consumers don’t need to remember to remove the label before recycling the product. Even without a label, the products would still have all of the same information available, as it would be etched onto the packaging versus disappearing altogether.

This brings us back to the pilot program from Coca-Cola, who did exactly this. The company removed its labels temporarily from Sprite and Sprite Zero bottles in the UK, with the information instead etched onto the bottle itself. This is just one step forward towards a potential label-less future, and I anticipate that many companies may begin following suit.

The Importance of Education in Driving Sustainability

There is still a major gap that exists between consumers wanting to recycle but not having clear direction on how to do so properly. This can be a major roadblock, but education can ultimately bring us toward a more sustainable future.

In the same survey from Specright, it was uncovered that there are some misconceptions that exist surrounding the level of sustainability of certain packaging materials. For instance, a quarter (25%) of consumers don’t consider glass to be a sustainable material. Meanwhile, more than a third (37%) believe bubble wrap is a sustainable material and more than a quarter (28%) believe styrofoam is a sustainable material. Based on these findings, it’s clear there is a gap for consumers when it comes to the true sustainability of a product’s packaging materials.

Brands are now addressing this gap in knowledge and understanding by taking an educational point of view. For example, my company recently partnered with How2Recycle to connect digitized specification data to inform the recycling instructions on packaging across the U.S. and Canada to address consumer confusion surrounding recycling.

Conclusion

Amid the growing demand from consumers for clarity around recyclability, along with the gap in knowledge for how to effectively recycle, a label-less future is one step in reducing confusion. Consumer education will also play a key role in closing the gap.

About the Author

Matthew Wright is the founder & CEO of Specright, the first cloud-based platform for specification management. Prior to Specright, Wright has spent more than 25 years in the packaging industry. Learn more at www.specright.com.