Packaging is obsess our live. From squeezable convenience foods, to placing shiny new laptops inside boxes inside boxes inside boxes so that it reaches our doorstep safely, to wrapping up individual pieces of produce at the grocery store, some packaging is just over-the-top. Check out our slideshows of bad packaging ideas and packaging gone wrong to see what we mean.
We’ve gotten accustomed to taking our reusable bags to the grocery store, but we still haven’t seen a strong shift towards reducing the packaging on the items we place in that reusable bag. And all that cardboard and plastic add up to quite a carbon footprint. How much of a carbon footprint and what impact if we were to cut back on packaging?
Carbon footprint of Packaging: Mystery to Many
Unfortunately, average person lack of knowledge to answer these types of questions. Part of this has to do with poor measurement by manufacturers and a lack of life cycle analysis that measure the carbon footprint of packaging. Groups like the Sustainable Packaging Coalition with their COMPASS are working to change this, helps designers and companies weigh the environmental impacts of their packaging. As the eco-saying goes, what gets measured gets managed. If companies aren’t taking the time to measure more than the price point of their packaging, then the bigger picture, and bigger long-term cost of that packaging is being missed.
In addition, part of the reason numbers are MIA has to do with the lack of transparency in our marketplace. When it comes to the manufacturing of goods, transparency is needed so that consumers can more fully understand the impact of their purchases. That’s one of the reasons for the push for carbon footprint labels on products that look and work similarly to nutrition labels on food products. Packaging—especially excessive and non-recyclable packaging—contributes to a product’s carbon footprint, and consumers, just like manufacturers, need to know by how much when they’re making purchasing decisions. Without this kind of knowledge, it’s near impossible to make improvements.
Carbon footprint of Packaging: the Big Impact
How Much Waste Packaging Generates
- 38 billion water bottles enter U.S. landfills every year—Fast Company
- Of the 66 million tons of solid waste generated by Californians each year, approximately one third is packaging—California Integrated Waste Management Board
- Our landfills contain thirty percent paperboard—American Chemistry
- Over 6.4 billion cardboard boxes were used to ship items via ground or air in 2007 alone—Rapioli
- Containers and packaging account for 31.6 percent by weight and 29.6 percent by volume of the municipal solid waste (MSW) in the United States—US EPA
Our Role in Cutting Our Carbon footprints of Packaging
With average American has a carbon footprint of 20 tons per year and the average carbon footprint of each human needs to be around 2 tons per year, that means we have many homework of reducing to do. There are some easy but very impact ways to cutting our carbon footprints and minimizing and eliminating packaging.
9 Ways You Can Cut Back on Packaging’s Carbon footprint;
- Buy in bulk whenever possible and store goods in refillable containers.
- When ordering from Amazon, see if your product comes with “Frustration-Free Packaging“
- Buy used, since many used items come with far less packaging than new.
- Choose items with packaging that is reusable in some way, and get creative in how you can reuse, instead of recycle, packaging.
- Reuse glass containers for storing foods, rather than plastic wrap or foil.
- Take your own reusable materials out with you, such as a stainless steel coffee thermos, To-Go Ware, reusable bags and so on, to help cut down on consumption of disposables wherever possible.
- When ordering products online, ask for them to come in one shipment.
- Avoid anything you don’t really need, and that comes in packaging, such as convenience foods, bottled drinks, and individually wrapped items.
- Contact the makers of products you buy that have excessive packaging or packaging made of non-recycled materials and give them your two cents. Hearing feedback from customers facilitates change. Get a sample letter here.
Another articles by Johan Young you may interest in reading: Volkswagen Hybrid, Hybrid Automobiles, Electric Hybrid Car, Saturn Vue Hybrid, and Carbon Emissions.
Adopt from By Jaymi Heimbuch, Read the full story here
