How Packaging Contributes to Environmental Impacts Across Industries

Author: Miguel Hernandez, Senior Sustainability Advisor & Operations Manager

Packaging is often the first thing people notice — and the first thing they critique — when it comes to sustainability. 

From designers to policymakers, it’s under constant scrutiny — which makes sense, as packaging is one of the most tangible elements in a product’s life cycle and often represents a “low-hanging fruit” for potential improvements or impact reductions. But how much does packaging really matter in the bigger picture of a product’s life cycle?

As with everything in Life Cycle Thinking, it depends.

Packaging by Industry

One key factor is the industry being evaluated. In industries such as beverages (soft drinks, bottled water, alcoholic drinks) and luxury goods (like perfumes), packaging can be a very significant driver of impacts. For instance, in the beverage industry, packaging can account for up to 65% of environmental impacts (depending on the packaging type — glass bottles or metal cans — and the impact indicator). Single-use glass bottles consistently emerge as the worst-performing option (Amienyo & Azapagic, 2016; UNEP, 2020).

Perfumes show a similar pattern: the relatively small product mass, combined with heavy and elaborate packaging (glass bottles, inserts, decorative printing and detailing), means packaging plays an outsized role in their footprint.

By contrast, in industries such as consumer electronics, detergents, and shampoos, the use phase dominates life cycle impacts, with packaging contributing far less. For electronics, packaging typically ranks third, behind the energy-intensive use phase and the hardware itself (electronic and mechanical components). For some detergents and shampoos, consumer use also dominates — but in these cases companies have little control over how the product is used, unlike electronics manufacturers, who can influence efficiency through design. When looking only at cradle-to-gate impacts, packaging usually plays a secondary role, accounting for up to 20% depending on the product, material, size, and end-of-life practices.

Regardless of the industry, packaging remains a central focus for design, R&D, and sustainability teams aiming to improve product performance. Strategies such as dematerialization (reducing packaging weight or increasing recycled content) and simplification (avoiding multilayer materials or moving toward paper-based systems) can boost recyclability, reusability, and lower emissions. Even when packaging is not identified as a hotspot in life cycle assessments, improvements at the packaging level can still deliver meaningful benefits — and when scaled across an entire portfolio, they can drive significant impact at the corporate level.

At EarthShift Global, we help companies go beyond assumptions by using life cycle assessment and sustainability consulting to pinpoint where packaging (and other aspects of your products) make the biggest difference. Whether you’re exploring lighter designs, new materials, or portfolio-wide strategies, our team can guide you in identifying opportunities that advance both performance and sustainability.