Microsoft uses New Recycled Plastic in Streets & Trips 2007 Packaging

The packaging for Microsoft's Streets & Trips 2007 with GPS Locator represents the very latest in packaging design and trends which are shifting increasingly more green. 

As the latest issue of Packaging Digest reports, Microsoft used sustainable films and cutting edge industrial & graphic design to create a visually pleasing and highly functional package design.

The main component of the package is made from SmartCycle 150 PETE from Klockner-Pentaplast.  The plastic film is made from a minimum of 50 % post consumer waste recycled bottles.

In order to incorporate the film into packaging Microsoft turned to Transparent Container Co. who specialize in visual packaging solutions.  Dan Ahern, Transparent Container's VP of Marketing told Packaging Digest, "We offer solutions that focus on product visibility within the package.  Microsoft had the idea of creating a reusable carry case for the product's hardware components that would also allow the consumer to see the product inside of the package.  The carry case was to be something that could be used again and again, not treated as a disposable package."

Microsoft's graphic design team created a design for the actual box part of the package that gives consumers the feeling they are actually driving.  Integrating the SmartCycle plastic carry case shell component into the box design so it showed off the GPS locator that comes with the software, was a major challenge.

Scott Ballantine, Microsoft's packaging project manager said of the final product made from SmartCycle, "We wanted to raise consumer awareness about how to use recycled materials in new ways.  We also wanted a carry case that people could use to store the GPS and its components.  The finished package fits in the glove compartment or CD slot of a car.  It is based on a compact, sunglass case design, and for that reason, is value-added because it is reusable.  And consumers can take pride knowing their bottle-recycling efforts have had direct impact in creating this extended-use package."

Comments

[Green Thinking for the Average Joe]

It's great to see huge corporations doing things like this -- they save money on packaging, postal services carry lighter loads, and the environment benefits from less waste. That is what I'm talking about.