How to Advance Cannabis Packaging Sustainability via Circularity

The cannabis industry is in pursuit of environmental sustainability. There is a need to develop cannabis packaging materials that are plant-based, recyclable, or reusable. Economic circularity can provide the industry with maximum packaging sustainability. Sana Packaging is a sustainable packaging company promoting a circular economy.

What is economic circularity, and how does it advance environmental sustainability?  

What is the Difference Between Sustainability and Circularity in Cannabis Packaging?

Marijuana Packaging Providers Operate in a Linear Economy

The cannabis industry exists in a linear “take-make-dispose” economic model where most materials are used once and discarded, most often ending up landfilled without being reused or recycled. Cannabis brands and retailers need access to sustainable cannabis packaging that meets consumer demand and protects resources for future generations. Most cannabis packaging does not fit this profile. 

The cannabis industry must leave economic linearity behind and move towards circularity to achieve true cannabis packaging sustainability. Sana Packaging is advancing this agenda. 

The Cannabis Industry Needs to Create Packaging with Economic Circularity in Mind

Economic circularity creates a closed-loop system where packaging is compostable, reusable, or recyclable. The development of packaging for a circular economy emphasizes using plant-based, recycled, or reusable materials. Economic circularity helps prevent packaging from harming humans and the environment.

Economic circularity shuns the use of single-use packaging consisting of finite and chemical-laden materials. Packaging design in a circular economy also focuses on downsizing materials used to produce packaging. Sana Packaging develops sustainable packaging that promotes economic circularity. 

Producing Plant-Based Cannabis Packaging Sustainability with Economic Circularity

The cannabis industry can strive toward a circular economy by moving towards plant-based packaging materials. Cannabis consumers need access to both packaging and infrastructural changes that support compostable materials. Alongside the need for packaging solutions like chemical-free, easily recycled paper packaging made from rapidly renewable and regenerative plant-based feedstocks is the need for more robust composting infrastructure in the U.S. to ensure those efforts are worthwhile.

Cannabis packaging produced with “virgin” plastic is highly unsustainable. Packaging consisting of plant-based materials can be a more sustainable alternative. Unfortunately, most bio-based plastic on the market is not 100% plant-based. Bio-plastic packaging predominantly mixes plant-based plastic with petroleum-based polymers. As a result, these bio-plastics are challenging to recycle.

Sana Packaging has developed hemp bio-plastic that is 100% plant-based and chemical-free. Plant-based packaging pushes the cannabis industry towards economic circularity. Bio-plastics will be a sustainable cannabis packaging material when the United State’s composting infrastructure is fully developed. 

The production of paper packaging in a circular economy also shuns the use of toxic inks that would prevent recycling. Chemical-filled paper is harmful to humans and hard to recycle. Plant-based inks allow for the easier recycling of paper cannabis packaging.   

Developing Recycled and Reusable Packaging for Marijuana to Achieve Sustainability in a Circular Economy

The cannabis industry must embrace recyclable and reusable packaging to achieve a circular economy. Economic circularity shuns the use of single-use packaging produced with unsustainable materials. Cannabis consumers need access to packaging that is recycled and reused easily. 

Producing cannabis packaging with recycled materials advances sustainability and moves the cannabis industry toward economic circularity by extending the useful lives of materials and bolstering the secondary market for recycled materials. Using recycled materials collected in vulnerable ecosystems like oceans and rivers further promotes a circular economy. Ocean-bound plastic is a cannabis packaging material containing used plastic reclaimed from waterways. Cannabis consumers need access to recycled packaging materials like ocean-bound plastic. 

Sana Packaging produces quality recycled cannabis packaging that includes ocean-bound plastic. In pursuit of sustainability, Sana Packaging manufactures ocean-bound plastic cannabis packaging for various products: flower, prerolls, vape cartridges, concentrates, edibles, topicals and prerolls.

Unfortunately, cannabis regulations make it extremely difficult to reuse of cannabis packaging. Government regulations often impede cannabis retailers from collecting used packaging and recycling them. These regulations hinder the cannabis industry from moving towards economic circularity. 

Sourcing Sustainable Packaging for Cannabis that Advances Economic Circularity

Does your cannabis company need quality, sustainable packaging that promotes a circular economy? Sana Packaging produces affordable packaging for marijuana that encourages economic circularity. We are a cannabis packaging company committed to reliably delivering sustainable materials.

Contact us if you’re ready to discover the real impact your packaging has on the environment, and if you’re ready to build a long-term relationship with a cannabis packaging supplier you can trust. It all starts with a conversation!