Let’s look at a basic question: what is packaging? Packaging is something that surrounds us, that we see every time we buy or use a product, whether this product is linked to consummation, like food, decoration or even business. However, packaging – especially the one made from more than one material – is not always recycled as we might hope or think. Every day, plastic packaging ends up in the sea and other wrappings stay for years in landfills, and 12.2 Million tons of plastic enter the sea each year.
PROBLEM
When packaging litter is cleaned up from the streets, it is often blown in drains or rivers which reach the ocean, and the situation is starting to affect us and our ecosystems tragically. Moreover, this is not the only issue: often, packaging is a waste itself, as it is found in abundant quantities, with superfluous materials and additional labels, which could be avoided. This packaging might a swell as well by recyclable, but it should not be there in the first place. Whether it is in supermarkets or in separate shops, we can often find enormous packaging for products that would simply need a much smaller and convenient packaging that covers up the product and includes a label with important information such as the brand, the ingredients, etc.
We might believe: let’s simply reduce packaging and become eco-friendlier, but the situation is not as simple as that. Packaging has various uses: it protects products from shock, vibration or other elements that might damage it, it is a permeation from liquids and air, it puts together different products (for example a set of pens sold together), it transmits information to the target audience (the labels on the packaging indicate ingredients, expiry dates and ways to transport and recycle it), it is used by marketers to convince people to buy a product, it reduces the security risks of shipment, and it is convenient. Also, food packaging preserves the ingredients. Indeed, if we eliminated packaging, or just kept minimal one, we would not be able to consume food that is not grown in the same season, and we would have to go to the supermarket much more often to buy new products every time while, nowadays, there is no need to buy products every day as they can be conserved thanks to packaging. An evident example is beef: its original packaging is polystyrene foam with cling wrap, while the packaging we find when we buy the product is vacuum packaging in an oxygen barrier film, which is much more sophisticated. Although this packaging might not seem complex and reduces food waste, it is difficult to recycle.
Although there are many products where packaging could be improved, there are some main materials and foods that have excessive wrappings. The first one is chip bags, which are often made of different layers of foil and plastic. These packages are useful because they are light, do not take up much space and have nice graphics. However, foil and plastic should be recycled separately, but no machine divides them, so the packaging becomes non-recyclable. This system is called multi-layer package, and is used by many large companies without taking sustainability into account.
Other types of packaging that could be improved are for single-serving foods.
However, food packaging is already improving, and various solutions are being found to this problem. Many industries have adopted eco-packaging techniques, that are extremely effective in reducing the environmental impact because packaging is biodegradable.
SOLUTIONS
In order to solve the packaging issue, we would have to take into consideration numerous aspects that companies sometimes do not think about. Firstly, packaging produces waste, so we have to prevent additional waste from being produced. However, packaging itself also prevents waste as it avoids damage during the transport of products which would have been thrown away if they had not been protected well. Another environmental aspect is air pollution (disposal): when packaging is littered in landfills, it is incinerated although some wrappings have toxic contents that may contaminate emissions. Besides, heat components present in packaging can be used for waste-to-energy or refuse-derived-fuel materials, which use waste to produce electricity and fuel. This is called energy recovery. Moreover, reducing packaging means a lower environmental impact, a lower cost for companies and lower amount of materials use, meaning more profit and more sustainability. According to https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-marketing/chapter/packaging/, this is a pyramid that shows the effectives of such considerations from the most to the least favored:
Another solution to make packaging recyclable is replacing the materials commonly used to wrap products with sustainable ones. A material that should be recycle is plastic, which is found almost everywhere nowadays. Indeed, although it is flexible, resistant and long-lasting, it often ends up in landfills or pollutes the environment when it is burned. Moreover, most plastic are not biodegradable, and less than ¼ of 1% of the total PVC produced in the US is recycled. Below are some eco-friendly solutions (these are the most famous ones but there are other materials you can think of to reduce the use of plastic):
- Glass – made from sand and not from fossil fuels, easily recycled by refilling glass bottles with water or other liquids
- Alternative plastic bags – plastic bags made from tissue or other materials that are resistant and can be often reused
- Milk protein – new material that could be elaborated to become a biodegradable plastic for furniture insulations, packaging, etc.
- Keratin from chicken-feathers – can be turned into a special type of plastic that is stronger and more resistant than plastic
- Liquid wood – looks and feels like plastic but is biodegradable and comes from renewable resources
- Starch-based polymers – natural, renewable and low-cost substance used with different types of biodegradable polyesters such as PLA PHA polyesters.
LINK TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
Reducing packaging means a responsible consumption and production of materials (Goal N° 12), as wrappings should be minimized during the production process and consumers should select carefully and responsibly what they buy for their choices to be convenient for them and sustainable for the environment.
Also, resolving this issue would contribute to the achievement of Goals 13 (Climate Action), 14 (Life Below Water), and 15 (Life on Land), because packaging that is wasted ends up in the environment and the sea, destroying habitats and ecosystems.
Comments