ZEE Packaging offers custom eco-friendly packaging solutions using recyclable kraft paper, corrugated cardboard and sustainable paperboard materials. Choose from custom printed boxes, folding cartons, mailer boxes and retail packaging with personalized sizes, branding and finishes to reduce packaging waste while protecting your products.
If your dream packaging isn’t listed above, we’ll custom-create it just for you. Shoot us a message and our packaging wizards love a good challenge!
Every week someone ask us for an eco-friendly box and mean something slightly different by it. Recyclable? Compostable? Recycled content? Plastic free? All of those are valid, but they pull in different direction, and the version you pick change your material, your finish and sometimes your cost. We sort that out with brands every day at ZEE Packaging, so here is how we actually think about it.
There is four separate thing people are usually asking for:
Pick one as your priority. Chasing all four at once usually mean you compromise on print quality somewhere, and we would rather tell you that upfront.
Kraft hide imperfection well, which is why a recycled eco-friendly box often look better than a recycled white one. White recycled stock show speck.
This is where most eco-friendly packaging project go wrong. A gloss or matte film make your box look great and make it much harder to recycle.
What we suggest instead:
An uncoated eco-friendly box with a blind deboss logo look more premium than a laminated one to most buyer now anyway. The market has moved.
Honestly the biggest environmental gain is not always the stock. It is using less.
Be careful with your on pack wording. Vague claim on eco-friendly packaging attract complaint, specific claim dont.
What actually makes a box eco-friendly?
Three things mainly, the fiber source, the coating and the ink. A true eco-friendly box uses recycled or FSC certified board, skips plastic lamination and prints with soy or water based ink so the whole thing can be repulped.
Is recycled kraft weaker than regular board?
Slightly, but not enough to matter at normal caliper. We just step up one grade if the product is heavy.
Can I still get foil on an eco-friendly box?
Yes but it complicate recycling. If you want the metallic look, we usually suggest a metallic soy ink or a deboss instead.
Does uncoated kraft print full color okay?
It print, but color sit duller and ink soak into the fiber. Design for it rather than fighting it, kraft look best with one or two spot color.
Do you offer compostable option?
We do, uncoated board with soy ink. There is no plastic component so it break down in commercial compost.
What is the price of an environmentally friendly box?
Eco friendly box packaging estimated cost is $0.35 to $1.95 per unit for kraft folding carton, $0.90 to $4.30 for recycled mailer boxes and $2.10 to $8.20 for rigid at moderate quantity. Shipping included. Estimate only, so ask our team for a exact figure.
Will an eco-friendly box survive shipping?
Recycled corrugated ship every day for our client with no issue. Plain kraft cardstock is retail only though, not a shipper.
Can you match my brand color on kraft?
We can get close, not exact. The brown base shift every color, so we always send a proof on the actual stock first.
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