The Home Depot Achieves Milestone in Eliminating Harmful Packaging Materials

Originally published on Built From Scratch

As innovation around sustainable packaging evolves and recycling infrastructure expands, The Home Depot is working to meet our customers’ expectations for quality packaging that’s also good for the environment. By eliminating certain harmful materials and reducing the overall amount of packaging we use, we’re able to help reduce landfill waste and lower packaging-related greenhouse gas emissions.

Our packaging team partners with our private-brand product suppliers to apply science to create better packaging options. One way we achieve that is to reduce the amount of packaging we use and to use more sustainable materials to protect the private-brand products we sell. From 2017 through 2023, we redesigned more than 1,280 packages to reduce size and materials.

Eliminating EPS & PVC

Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) foam is a lightweight, rigid packaging material, while Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) film is a thinner, more flexible protective filler. They are both made from synthetic substances and can take more than a century to biodegrade.

We’ve eliminated EPS foam and PVC film in new packaging for our private-brand products sold in the U.S., Canada and online. In 2023 alone, the company eliminated approximately 6.0 million cubic feet of EPS—equal to approximately 67 Olympic-sized swimming pools—and more than 39 million square feet of PVC film—enough to cover more than 513 soccer fields—from its private-brand packaging. Not only were we able to meaningfully reduce our environmental impact by eliminating these hard-to-recycle materials: we also improved the customer experience with less packaging waste and reduced our shipping costs with right-sized packages.

Moving forward, we will continue to partner with our suppliers to keep these materials out of future packaging. Our packaging team has expanded its commitment to circularity by working toward our new packaging goal for all new private-brand fiber packaging to be compostable, recyclable or from recycled content across our U.S. and Canada stores by fiscal 2027.

We know that running a sustainable operation is not only good for the environment – it's good for business.

“We believe that by embedding sustainability into our business strategy, we can create long-term success for our associates, customers, communities, and shareholders. Our efforts to promote operational efficiencies, minimize waste, and drive product innovation will help us move our industry forward,” said Candace Rodriguez, senior director of sustainability at The Home Depot.

In support of its continued effort to reduce packaging waste, The Home Depot achieved its goal of removing expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) film from new packaging for its private-brand products.

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Corrugate Corner

• In 2023, The Home Depot eliminated 39 million square feet of PVC film and approximately 6.0 million cubic feet of EPS from product packaging and replaced them with molded pulp and paper.
• By removing these hard-to-recycle materials. The Home Depot lessens its environmental footprint, reduces shipping costs, and gives customers a better experience by reducing their packaging waste.

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Expanded Polystyrene Foam (EPS)

Fiber-Based Packaging Goal

Our packaging team has expanded its commitment to circularity by working toward our new packaging goal for all new private-brand fiber packaging to be compostable, recyclable or made with recycled content across our U.S. and Canada stores by the start of fiscal 2027.

We define fiber packaging as:

• Paper
• Paper board
• Blister cards
• Corrugate
• Molded pulp
• Paper materials

Our process starts with us researching current U.S. and Canada recycling infrastructure capabilities. Then we communicate our new goal with our suppliers, including our expectations and timeline. Next, we partner with them to explore alternative material options for our fiber-based packaging. As we find sustainable alternatives or create new designs, new products will be compliant as they are onboarded, and existing items will be assessed and updated.

As we work towards this goal, we are also committed to meeting the expectations of our customers. This means that our new packaging must not only be more sustainable but also perform as well as or better than the existing packaging.

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