Sony to Use Bamboo, Sugarcane Fiber Instead of Plastic for Packaging

Sony will start to replace plastic as a packaging material for its products starting in 2023.

As Nikkei reports(Opens in a new window), the Japanese electronics manufacturer is set to gradually move away from plastic packaging, starting with products that weigh less than 1kg (2.2lbs). These smaller products make up around 40% of Sony’s entire product line-up, and include earbuds, smartphones, cameras, and a huge range of accessories.

As a replacement for plastic, Sony will rely on paper boxes, but is also set to develop its own alternative to plastic as a packaging material. It’s thought bamboo and sugarcane fiber will be used as a raw material for this new type of sustainable packaging.

For now, Sony doesn’t have a viable alternative for the polystyrene packaging used to protect its larger products such as TVs. The company is looking into using a new foam created from powdered recycled paper, but it’s early days for the technology and the viability of such a foam needs to be confirmed before Sony decides to protect devices worth thousands of dollars using it.

This isn’t the first move Sony has made to being more eco-friendly with its packaging. The PS5 console ships in packaging that is fully recylable and almost completely free of plastic or glue. However, it has made the odd misstep, such as ruining The Last of Us Part 1 Firefly Edition by using cheap packaging. Perhaps that new foam could also be used to create protective outer-packaging as well eventually?