Pakt + SeaHive's Guide to Plastic-Free Packaging

You might notice when you unbox your Pakt One bag that there’s no plastic packaging. We hope that it’s hard to ignore-- it’s something we worked on diligently with our partners at SeaHive to execute. We learned a lot during the process, from design to production to fulfillment, and want to share what worked for us, so we put together this guide in collaboration with SeaHive.

Our goal for these guides is to help other businesses realize that they can do this too. Switching to plastic-free packaging doesn’t have to cost a lot and it isn’t as complicated as you might think, but every item packaged and shipped without plastic makes a difference. We aren’t environmental scientists or packaging engineers-- we’re just a small team of people who want to keep plastic out of the ocean and saw an opportunity to start with our own products. This is what worked for us and we hope it inspires you to consider eliminating plastic packaging from your product line.

Have any questions or comments about any of the help articles here? Please get in touch!

Why We Wanted To Avoid Plastic in Our Packaging

SeaHive and Pakt founder, Malcolm Fontier, didn’t want to contribute to the creation of more plastic packaging, 32% of which ends up in the ocean. “Even as an environmentally-minded product company, it's easy to focus on your product and overlook the packaging. We wanted to show that going plastic-free and removing much of the environmental risk from your packaging isn't difficult and something any company can do.” says Fontier.

Designing Plastic-Free Packaging

"Did you notice your Pakt One was packaged plastic-free?"

The first product Pakt launched was the Pakt One travel bag. After they sold 10,000 units in an Indiegogo campaign we needed to figure out how to package and ship those bags across the globe. We wanted the packaging experience to be as beautiful, simple, and well-made as the bag itself.

Getting Your Factory to Package Plastic-Free

You’ve made your product. You’ve designed plastic-free packaging. Now it’s time to combine the two at your factory. We needed to pack and ship 10,000 duffel bags from our factory in Vietnam. We were shipping some to our 3PL and some directly to consumers. Most high-end bags are shipped inside a plastic bag to protect it. A bag… in a bag. They might be further “protected” by air pockets, packing peanuts, or other filler. This strategy didn’t make a lot of sense to us…

Picking a 3PL That Supports Your Plastic-Free Vision

Every 3PL will tell you they can avoid plastic for your products because they want your business. The reality is that warehouses have a lot of clients and there is high staff turnover. We experienced this with our first 3PL when they intermittently added plastic air pockets to boxes on accident.

Minimizing Your Carbon Footprint

There’s a lot you can do to broaden your company’s environmental responsibility beyond just eliminating plastic in packaging. Here are a few areas where you can reduce your footprint.