How to Choose Eco-Friendly Packaging for Your Brand

Who it is for

Brands choosing or changing packaging

Time needed

A week or two with samples

What you need

Your product sizes, weights and order data

Your shipping box is the one piece of your brand every customer holds in their hands. That makes packaging a real buying decision for a small business, not just a supplies order. Customers notice plastic fill and oversized boxes, regulators notice vague green claims, and carriers charge you for every extra centimeter of box.

This guide is a practical way to choose eco friendly packaging for a Shopify brand: the materials worth considering, the claims you can and can't print, how to vet suppliers, and how to set up packages in Shopify so your rates stay right. Rules and figures come from the FTC, the US EPA, certification bodies and Shopify's help center as I checked them on 7 November 2026. Nothing here is legal advice.

Why packaging choices matter

Packaging is a big part of what households throw away. The EPA's most recent product-level figures, for 2018, put containers and packaging at more than a quarter of all US municipal solid waste.

That last number is the useful one for a small brand. Corrugated cardboard is already recycled at a very high rate in the US, so a plain, right-sized cardboard box is often a stronger choice than a novel material your customers don't know how to dispose of.

Common eco friendly packaging options

No material wins on every count. Match the material to the product and to what your customers can actually do with it afterwards.

Small businesses often get the best result from a short list: one or two box sizes, one mailer, paper fill and paper tape. Fewer formats mean bigger orders per item, simpler packing and fewer shipping rate errors.

What you can claim, and how to say it

This is where well-meaning brands get into trouble. In the US, the FTC's Green Guides set out how environmental marketing claims are read and what backs them up. Three rules matter most for packaging:

• General claims. The Guides say marketers shouldn't make unqualified general environmental claims such as "eco-friendly" or "green". Qualify them with the specific benefit, such as "box made from 100% recycled cardboard".
• Recyclable. You can call packaging recyclable without qualification only when recycling facilities are available to a substantial majority, at least 60%, of the consumers or communities where it's sold. Below that, qualify the claim.
• Compostable. You need competent and reliable scientific evidence that all the materials break down into usable compost in about the same time as the materials they're composted with. If the item can't be composted safely at home, or composting facilities aren't available to a substantial majority, say so clearly.

The FTC has been reviewing the Green Guides since 2022, including a workshop on recyclable claims in 2023, so check the current version before you print boxes in bulk. Third-party labels help with the details: How2Recycle provides on-package disposal instructions based on a recyclability assessment, BPI certifies compostable products to ASTM standards in North America, and FSC labels show wood-based material as FSC 100%, FSC Recycled or FSC Mix. Use those marks only if your supplier is certified or licensed to let you.

How to choose packaging, step by step

1. List what you ship. Pull your top 20 products by orders and note size, weight and fragility. Check which products arrive damaged, from returns and complaints.
2. Group products into a few box sizes. Aim for the fewest sizes that fit most orders snugly. Every centimeter of empty space costs material, void fill and often postage.
3. Pick a material per group. Use the table above. Fragile goods get a box, soft goods a mailer.
4. Decide what you'll claim. Write the exact wording now, and ask your supplier for the evidence behind it: recycled content certificates, compostability certification or FSC certification details.
5. Order samples and test. Pack real orders, drop-test them and send a few to yourself and friends by your usual carrier.
6. Price it per order. Add packaging cost to your product margin, not just the shipping line, and check the result with the profit margin calculator.
7. Set it up in Shopify. Save the final boxes as packages, so checkout rates and labels use the right sizes (see below).
8. Tell customers how to dispose of it. One line on the box or insert does more than a paragraph on your About page.

How to vet eco friendly packaging companies

Search results for eco friendly packaging supplies are full of similar-looking suppliers. These questions separate them quickly:

• Evidence. Can they share the certificate or test report behind each claim, in their name, for the exact product?
• Minimum order quantity. Custom eco friendly packaging with your logo often comes with a high minimum. Stock sizes with a printed sticker or stamp can be the better start for a small business.
• Lead times and restocks. How long a reorder takes, and whether sizes stay in stock.
• Print and inks. Heavy coatings and laminates can make a recyclable box harder to recycle. Ask what the print adds.
• Freight. Where the packaging ships from, and what delivery to you costs per order once spread out.

Set up your packaging in Shopify

Once your boxes are chosen, record them in Shopify. Accurate packages keep weight-based and carrier-calculated rates right, and help avoid carrier price adjustments when the real parcel differs from the label.

1. Add each box. Go to Settings > Shipping and delivery. In the Packages section, click Add package, name it, choose the package type, and enter the outside dimensions and the empty weight.
2. Set the default. Select Use as default package for the box most orders use. Shopify adds its weight to orders when working out weight-based rates.
3. Assign boxes to products. On a product, in the Shipping section, choose a box from Package when shipped alone. This applies to single-item orders.
4. Add packed product sizes. In the same Shipping section, enter the packed length, width and height. When every product in a shipment has one, Shopify packs it into the smallest saved box that fits for carrier-calculated rates.
5. Re-test checkout. Place test orders and compare checkout rates with label prices from Calculate rates under Shipping labels.

If you want to go further, Shopify's Planet app makes shipments carbon neutral by funding carbon removal. You can pay for all shipments yourself, or let customers choose to add $0.50 for carbon-neutral shipping at checkout, and show a Planet badge on your store. That's about shipping emissions, not packaging, so describe it that way.

If you sell outside the US

• UK: Plastic Packaging Tax has applied since 1 April 2022 to businesses that manufacture or import 10 tonnes or more of finished plastic packaging components in 12 months. Components with less than 30% recycled plastic are taxed. Most small Shopify brands fall below the threshold, but check if you import packed goods.
• EU: the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation has been in force since 11 February 2025 and generally applies from 12 August 2026. It aims to make all packaging on the EU market recyclable in an economically viable way by 2030.

Common mistakes

• Printing "eco-friendly" on the box without saying what makes it so.
• Calling a mailer compostable when it needs an industrial facility most customers can't reach.
• Swapping plastic for a much bigger paper package, which uses more material and costs more to ship.
• Using an FSC or BPI logo your supplier hasn't licensed to you.
• Ordering thousands of custom boxes before testing samples with real orders.
• Not updating Shopify's packages, so checkout rates use a box you no longer ship in.

Eco packaging checklist

• Top products measured, weighed and grouped into a few box sizes.
• Material chosen per group, with samples drop-tested.
• Every claim worded specifically and backed by supplier evidence.
• Recyclable or compostable claims qualified where access is limited.
• Certification marks used only with permission.
• Packaging cost added to product margins.
• Boxes saved under Packages in Shopify, with the right default and packed product sizes.
• Disposal instructions printed on the package or insert.

Next steps

Start with the audit of what you ship, because right-sizing alone often makes the biggest difference. Then fix your wording before you order in bulk. Once the new boxes arrive, update Shopify and re-check your shipping rates and zones.

If sustainability is central to your brand, my page on Shopify for eco and sustainable brands covers how I build product pages that explain materials clearly. For a review of how your store presents all this, send me your store for a free review.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. Green Guides, Federal Trade Commission
2. 16 CFR 260.12, Recyclable claims, Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School
3. Containers and Packaging: Product-Specific Data, US Environmental Protection Agency
4. FSC labels, Forest Stewardship Council
5. Setting up packages, Shopify Help Center
6. Carbon-neutral shipping with the Planet app, Shopify Help Center

Related services and work

Written by Ashraf Siddik

I'm a Shopify developer and CRO specialist. I have built and improved Shopify stores since 2018, completed more than 1,000 projects, and hold a 4.96 average rating across 719 client reviews.

About me · Client reviews