[Illustration: Daniel Salo/Fast Company]
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Most every product you buy comes in some kind of packaging. And even though paper is recyclable, it’s not all created equal: Some packaging is much easier to recycle than others.
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The American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) just released a new guide to help product designers make paper packaging as recyclable as possible. It’s not enough that the packaging has the little chasing arrow recycling symbol, which indicates that it can be sent to a local recycling system. There are actually all kinds of design flourishes that can make packaging harder to recycle. The guide show how packaging add-ons, like adhesives or silver embossing, could affect a product’s ability to have a second life.