In various areas of human activity more attention is paid to environmental and ecological problems and also social issues. International enterprises take into account these criteria in management and strive to reduce the degradative impact and negative effects of their activities. These activities include the global concepts of sustainable development, circular economy and social responsibility. These concepts are also increasingly taken into account by companies from the packaging industry. For this reason, more often we hear about the so-called “sustainable packaging”, which is a consequence of the above actions and brings new opportunities in the environmental, economic, ethical and social aspects. The aim of the article was to characterize sustainable packaging. Based on the literature, sustainable packaging was defined, at the same time indicating that although this definition shows how to improve the packaging present on the global market, it should also be constantly improved and adapted to the changing market, society or environment requirements, as well as the state and development of the packaging industry. Examples of companies’ around the world activities in the field of creating sustainable packaging were also presented.

Objective: The paper characterizes packaging as a factor influencing consumer choice and the legibility of the messages transmitted. It presents the results of research allowing message readability to be evaluated on the example of 19 packages of exclusive mineral waters sold on the Polish market.Research Design & Methods: A typographical scoring system called TVScore, developed by M. Metz, was used to assess the readability of unit packages of exclusive mineral waters. It scores fifteen typographic parameters of the text on packaging (print style, print size, leading, boldface or italic, case, line length, print justification, print organization, contrast level, reverse print, shiny/light reflecting, print reproduction, print background, hyphenation, abbreviation).Findings: The packaging evaluated had varying amounts of information (which did not depend to a great deal on the capacity and dimensions of the individual packaging). Text legibility was rated from 65 to142 TVScore points, significantly exceeding the threshold proposed by Metz, who assumes that a legible label has no more than 4 TVScore points.Implications / Recommendations: The packaging evaluated in this study was characterized by very low readability and inappropriately organised text. This is a cause for concern and reason to redesign the packaging.Contribution: The TVScore method has not been widely used until now and has never been used to evaluate packaging for premium food products packaged in bottles or cans, which are an integral part of the product and affect consumer perception of its quality. The research shows that the TVScore method is useful for assessing the diversity of bottle and can packaging and the readability and organisation of the information placed on them.