Soaps are a basic necessity of life and are a need for hygiene. So, there’s a massive worldwide demand for soaps. There are many mainstream worldwide brands and many small brands that are supplying soaps for such enormous demands.
Like most of the retail products in the market, soaps also require some type of packaging. Generally, that packaging is made from plastic, cardboard, or Kraft material. As people are getting more environment-conscious, the consumer market is not like plastic packaging. That leaves the options to only cardboard and Kraft material as these are commercially successful packaging materials. Both of these materials are far more eco-friendly than Kraft soap boxes.
Kraft and Cardboard materials are both compatible with soaps. Yet, both of these materials have their own pluses and minuses. Here we will discuss the advantages and limitations of both packaging materials to give you a better idea of which packaging materials you should be getting.
WHAT IS CARDBOARD?
According to the definition, cardboard is any material made from cellulose fibers. There are many types of cardboard-like bleached and unbleached varieties. For soaps, paperboard or custom cardboard soap boxes is the right choice as its surface is suitable for various customizations.
WHAT IS KRAFT MATERIAL?
Kraft is another famous packaging material with a brown surface. The material is based on chemical pulp
, which is mostly based on recycled material. This material is highly eco-friendly as it is made from recycled material and can be recycled again and again.
PRINTING | CARDBOARD VS. KRAFT
Every packaging material has some extent of customizability. The packaging making companies out there make fair use of these qualities for their products to look more attractive and appealing. In addition to these details, they also like to add information like the product's contents, but most importantly, their branding details like logo and taglines go on these boxes. So, printing is an important aspect.
Both cardboard and Kraft material have printing friendly surfaces, but the results can be very different. The smooth white surface of paperboard varieties of cardboard has great results for printing. With Kraft, the results are not as good as cardboard. But if you are okay with limited printing options, then these boxes can be great as well.
FINISHING | CARDBOARD VS. KRAFT
When it comes to finishing, the story is similar to the printing options. Cardboard can have various finishing options, including foiling, spot UV, soft-touch, and many others. The Kraft material offers limited options for finishing as the mainstream Kraft is generally a bit grainy. There are smoother varieties of Kraft that have a coating of titanium oxide. However, the usual Kraft boxes can be embossed, debossed, or foiled. So, limited finishing options are there for you, even with Kraft material.
DESIGN CUSTOMIZATIONS | CARDBOARD VS. KRAFT
There are many designs of soap boxes. Some famous styles of boxes include the syllables, tuck-ends, auto-bottom cartons, and tray and sleeve boxes. Both cardboard and Kraft are useful for making all these styles of boxes. Also, you can add customizations like die-cut windows to these boxes as well. So, you can get unique looking boxes with either of these materials.
STURDINESS | CARDBOARD VS. KRAFT
Sturdiness is a much-needed quality for soaps as these products have to go through brutal conditions before reaching the customers. So, the packaging has to be tough enough to keep the soap safe at all times. Both Kraft and cardboard are resilient packaging materials.
The extent of sturdiness is actually dependent on the thickness of the boxes. You can get both of these materials with the suitable width and density from your packaging vendor. Therefore, both of these materials are excellent in the toughness department.
ECO-FRIENDLINESS | CARDBOARD VS. KRAFT
The reason for not including plastic is because of the fact that it is damaging to the environment. Unlike plastic, both cardboard and Kraft are more eco-friendly packaging solutions. However, their extent of nature-friendliness is different. Kraft is a more environment-friendly packaging as it can be made of 100% recycled material. Cardboard can involve recycled material as well, but not close to this extent. Also, because of the unbleached and pigment-free surface, the Kraft boxes are easier to recycle as well.