Beyond the Buzzwords: What It Takes to Make Packaging Truly Sustainable
A conversation with CEO of EcoEnclose, Saloni Doshi
In our recent blog on plastic innovations, we featured research from EcoEnclose—one of the most trusted voices in sustainable packaging today. As companies race to move beyond plastic, EcoEnclose has been at the forefront, cutting through the noise to champion truly circular and regenerative solutions. Since Saloni Doshi took the helm as CEO in 2015, the company has become a critical partner for brands looking to make meaningful, science-backed shifts in their packaging.
While much of the conversation around sustainable packaging focuses on swapping plastic for paper or using ocean-bound plastic, EcoEnclose’s research shows that these approaches often fall short in tackling plastic pollution at its root. Instead, the company advocates for a more holistic, systemic approach—one that includes investing in waste management infrastructure, phasing out low-value plastics, and prioritizing post-consumer recycled content. This philosophy extends to their partnerships, including their work with Sway, a Third Nature portfolio company and biomaterials innovator designing seaweed-based alternatives to traditional petroleum-based plastic. While we’re proud to invest in solutions like Sway, we know that investment alone isn’t enough—bold and promising startups need clear pathways to commercialization and scale, which is exactly where EcoEnclose plays a pivotal role.
In the Q&A below, we spoke with Saloni Doshi about what it takes to make packaging truly sustainable, the biggest barriers to adoption, and where she sees the future of circular packaging and regenerative materials heading.
For those unfamiliar, tell us about EcoEnclose?
EcoEnclose is the go-to sustainable packaging partner for forward-thinking brands that see packaging as a core part of their mission, customer experience, and business strategy.
We work across industries—from apparel and personal care to footwear and nutraceuticals—and support companies of all sizes, from Fortune 100s to high-growth startups.
No matter the brand, our approach is the same:
Unmatched packaging solutions. We offer the industry’s most comprehensive and sustainable packaging line.
Match brands with tailored packaging for their needs. We get to know each brand we serve and deliver eco-forward options that align with their budget, branding, functionality, and operational needs.
High touch management of production and delivery. Our high-touch service ensures packaging is produced, labeled, and delivered accurately and on time—no surprises.
Long-term partnership. We help brands manage inventory, navigate evolving regulations, and future-proof their packaging.
Forward-looking innovation. We bring brands the materials and services they’ll need tomorrow—often before they know they need them.
If packaging is part of how your brand shows up in the world, we’re here to help you do it better.
Sustainable packaging is a broad and sometimes vague term. How does EcoEnclose define true sustainability in packaging, and what principles guide your approach?
We start by acknowledging a hard truth: truly sustainable packaging doesn’t exist yet.
Even the best packaging available today, including ours (which we’re proud of!), still has a net negative impact on the planet. That’s why our work is grounded in a long-term vision of what true sustainability could look like.
Our North Star is circularity. We see a future in which:
Packaging is made from packaging.
Packaging becomes packaging again in its next life.
Raw materials that form the foundation of packaging are restorative, not extractive.
To move toward this vision, we’ve built a detailed sustainability framework that guides every decision we make—from product design to supply chain vetting to the advice we give our customers. The core pillars include:
Maximize recycled content, with an emphasis on post-consumer waste that is domestically sourced.
Design for ready recyclability, and reuse where appropriate.
Accelerate promising novel materials that have regenerative potential and scalability.
Evaluate full environmental impact, including carbon, biodiversity, soil health, water, and chemical runoff.
Ensure supply chain transparency and integrity.
This shows up in our work in thoughtful and sometimes unexpected ways. Examples include:
Paper vs. Plastic: Rather than making blanket assumptions, we weigh tradeoffs. Paper is renewable and biodegradable, but plastic has a lower carbon footprint and less impact on deforestation. So we offer both—thoughtfully designed with high recycled content and built for recyclability—and are exploring new, regenerative alternatives to both trees and fossil fuels.
Reusable Packaging: We launched our ReEnclose mailers to support reuse. But through life cycle assessments, we found they must be reused 8–25 times to ecologically outperform a recycled poly mailer. So we now offer them selectively—only to brands whose business models can confidently lead to high reuse rates.
True Circularity: Most recycled poly bags are downcycled into composite lumber. We’re working with retail brands to collect used poly bags and develop true bag-to-bag recycling, turning today’s plastic film into tomorrow’s packaging.
At EcoEnclose, sustainability isn’t a label—it’s a journey. And we’re committed to walking that path with transparency, rigor, and constant innovation.
Many companies want to adopt more sustainable packaging but struggle with cost, availability, or performance. What are the biggest barriers to widespread adoption, and how is EcoEnclose working to address them?
In our work with brands, we always emphasize progress over perfection.
We recognize that packaging decisions are complex. While we aim to guide every brand toward the most sustainable option available, we also understand that packaging has to meet a range of other needs—often with sustainability not even making the top three.
Brands are juggling priorities:
Budget,
Aesthetics and branding,
Lead times,
Operational functionality and performance,
And more.
That’s why we offer a broad suite of packaging solutions. In each category, we offer and highlight the industry’s most sustainable option — but we also offer alternatives that, while not perfect ecologically, still represent a meaningful step forward for many companies.
Our process starts with understanding a brand’s unique priorities—what’s non-negotiable, what’s flexible. Then, we help them choose the most eco-forward solution possible that aligns with those needs. From there, we work together to improve over time—one step at a time.
Examples of this in action:
A brand using a 100% recycled, 50%+ post-consumer waste poly mailer faced new cost pressures. We helped them transition to a similar mailer manufactured overseas, maintaining recycled content but lowering costs—while acknowledging the tradeoff in domestic circularity.
Another brand wanted to shift to paper but was heavily focused on performance and skeptical that recycled fibers could deliver the strength levels they felt they needed. We prioritize 100% recycled paper as the most sustainable option, and we will never offer virgin paper from ancient or endangered forests, so we partnered with them to test performance and landed on a 70% recycled mailer (30% post-consumer), with the remaining virgin content verified to come from responsibly managed, non-primary forests.
This is how we drive progress: by meeting brands where they are today—and helping them build toward where they want to be tomorrow.
Your mission emphasizes materials circularity and regenerative materials. Can you share some of the most exciting innovations or trends you’re seeing in these areas today?
We’re incredibly excited about the future of packaging—and especially the role seaweed can play in it.
When grown responsibly, seaweed is one of the most regenerative materials available. It restores coastal ecosystems, absorbs excess nutrients, and has promising potential for carbon sequestration. Unlike many biobased alternatives, it requires no freshwater, minimal inputs, and poses no risk of deforestation.
That’s why we’re thrilled about our partnership with Sway, and the launch of the Sway Polybag line — the first polybags made with Sway’s revolutionary TPSea™ technology, a resin derived predominantly from responsibly harvested seaweed. It’s an exciting first step toward a future where flexible plastic packaging can be made from seaweed instead of fossil fuels.
Seaweed isn’t the only novel input we’re excited about.
We're also passionate about agricultural and food waste as feedstocks for both paper and plastic alternatives. Agricultural residues—often burned, contributing to pollution and carbon emissions—can instead be repurposed into high-performing, low-impact packaging.
We believe the future of paper must rely on a diverse fiber basket, not just timber. Inputs like agricultural waste, miscanthus, and hemp are promising because they restore soils, support biodiversity, and require little water or chemical input.
We’re also closely watching innovations in responsibly grown sugarcane, especially when certified by Bonsucro or—better yet—Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC). Historically, sugarcane has contributed to deforestation, water pollution, and land degradation. But when grown regeneratively, it can support soil health and biodiversity, with minimal environmental tradeoffs.
One exciting application: sugarcane-derived polyethylene. Because it’s chemically identical to conventional PE, it functions as a drop-in material—making it recyclable within today’s systems and commercially viable as we transition away from fossil fuels.
The future of packaging will be built on regenerative inputs—and we’re working hard to help bring that future to life.
Consumer brands are facing increasing pressure—from regulators, retailers, and customers—to adopt better packaging solutions. How do you see the sustainable packaging landscape evolving over the next 5-10 years?
Brands are navigating one of the most complex and contradictory packaging landscapes we’ve ever seen.
On one hand, powerful forces are pushing brands toward more sustainable packaging:
Regulations are ramping up—Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), material bans, truth-in-labeling laws, and climate reporting requirements are all raising the bar.
Data demands are growing—brands need better visibility into their packaging materials, recyclability, and environmental impacts to comply with legislation across the EU, Canada, and a patchwork of U.S. states.
Consumers—especially younger and values-driven segments—are demanding that the brands they buy from make meaningful, eco-conscious decisions.
But at the same time, several dynamics are pulling brands away from bold sustainability moves:
Economic pressures—since COVID, we’ve been on an economic roller coaster of uncertainty that has led brands to become more risk-averse and cost-conscious than ever.
Litigation risks—companies trying to improve are often penalized for imperfection. Even innovation leaders can face backlash when they release a needed advancement, if consumers find it to be lacking.
Political headwinds—the current climate has made sustainability feel politicized and, for some brands, risky to promote.
Tariffs and rising costs—with cost of goods increasing, brands are searching for savings anywhere they can, sometimes at the expense of sustainability.
So where are we headed over the next 5–10 years?
In the short term, I think we’ll continue to see a “split screen” reality:
A small but mighty group of brands—like Patagonia, prAna, and a growing cohort of purpose-driven small to midsize businesses—will continue to lead with bold sustainability investments.
Meanwhile, many mainstream brands will make incremental improvements but shy away from anything that feels risky or untested.
In the medium to long term, sustainability will win out.
EPR will become more standardized, better enforced, and will begin to truly shape packaging decisions.
Emerging material innovations—like seaweed-based films and agricultural waste papers—will mature, become commercially viable, and increasingly expected by consumers.
Public discourse will shift back toward recognizing sustainability not as a political wedge issue, but as a shared imperative for business, society, and the planet.
At EcoEnclose, we’re working to help brands thrive through this complexity—meeting them where they are today, and helping them build toward the future they and their customers want to see.
What advice would you give to startups and brands looking to transition to more sustainable packaging without greenwashing or making compromises on sustainability principles?
My advice to startups and emerging brands looking to adopt sustainable packaging: Begin with your brand’s ethos—and build from there.
The most successful transitions to sustainable packaging start by anchoring decisions in a clear and authentic brand identity. What are your values? What’s your mission? What kind of impact do you want to have? From there, build a sustainability vision and decision-making framework that reflects those values. This ensures that your packaging choices are not just reactive, but intentional—and aligned with your broader purpose.
Once you have that framework in place, use it to:
Guide internal decisions (What tradeoffs are you willing to make?)
Communicate externally (What do you want your customers to understand and trust about your packaging?)
And be honest with yourself and your customer community—sustainability is never perfect. Every decision involves tradeoffs: cost, performance, aesthetics, recyclability, circularity, and more. The key is to make informed, intentional choices—and to be transparent about them. Your customers won’t expect perfection if you meet them with integrity.
If you don’t yet have a framework, consider adopting ours at EcoEnclose. It’s grounded in rigorous research and real-world application. Our approach encourages brands to:
Prioritize recycled content, especially post-consumer waste sourced domestically.
Design packaging that can be recycled back into itself, enabling circularity.
Explore when and how to adopt promising new materials—like Sway’s seaweed polybags, black algae ink, and agricultural waste fiber papers. These innovations aren’t perfect today, but early adopters help them scale and improve.
Factor in broader ecological considerations—carbon, biodiversity, chemical use, soil and water health.
Always strive for accurate labeling and radical transparency.
When you take this kind of intentional, transparent approach, you not only avoid greenwashing—you build trust that supports your brand’s growth over time.
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