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Packaging

Marie Hammer

Packaging is an essential part of our marketing and distribution systems. In the past, we shopped at lots of specialty stores. The butcher cut our meat for us, the clerk weighed out just the right number of three-penny nails, and a salesperson assisted us with our shopping. Nowadays, huge variety stores allow for one-stop shopping, all the meat is pre-cut for self-help shopping, and our nails are pre-packaged. We use theft-proof packages for unsupervised consumers, and the products are advertised right on the shelf.

PRECYCLING

Reduce your garbage before you buy it ­­ PRECYCLE! Here are some examples of pre-cycling strategies:

• Begin your enviroshopping before you go to the store. Take your grocery bags back to the store to keep from having to get new ones every time.
• Take your own shopping bag for small purchases.
• Look for packages that use the least amount of material. Avoid those that use several layers when one would do.
• Buy products in the largest quantity possible in one package. One large jug of cleaner uses less packaging material per ounce than several small bottles. You can refill a smaller spray bottle or dispenser from a large jug.
• When it comes to large containers of foods, be sure you don't buy more than you can use up before it spoils.
• Whenever they are available, buy concentrated products, then dilute them at home in a larger reusable container. (Concentrates available include fabric starch/softener and clothes detergent in some areas, fruit drink/juice and liquid soap.)

REUSING PACKAGING

Packaging comes in many forms. There is an endless variety of cardboard boxes, metal tins, plastic jars and glass jugs. There are bowls, boxes, tubes, trays, tubs and jugs. They are compartmented, round and square, plain and fancy, with lids, sprayers, snaps, flaps, seals and drawstrings. Their uses are as varied as your imagination and determination to make use of these high-quality materials. Here are some examples:

• Use divided cookie trays as desk drawer organizers.
• Take a small plastic container, cut in half long-wise to make a flour scoop.
• Punch holes in the bottom of a round container to make a flower pot.
• Need a beach bucket? Take a sherbet bowl, punch two holes at the top and add a rope handle.
• Polystyrene vegetable trays are good for artists of all ages to mix paints in.
• Cover cans with old fabric, wallpaper and wrapping paper. Use them to support a pretty board on your desk or kitchen counter to add shelf space, or fill with goodies for holiday giving.
• Many types of containers are in demand at schools, child care centers and senior centers, where they provide resources for the creativity of young and old. Call your local agencies to see what they need.

And of course packages of all kinds can be used for storage. Packages large and small can store items in the shop or garage, the sewing room, the kitchen, the playroom, the bathroom, the office and the trunk of your car. Use packages to hold video tapes, cassette tapes, tools, toys, model airplane parts, envelopes, shoes, jewelry, scarves and belts, cosmetics, note paper, pencils, wrench sockets, strings, ribbons, wrapping paper ­­ you name it, and you can find a package to fit it. Smaller items like paper clips, buttons, rubber bands, loose change, keys, nuts and bolts, tacks, nails and postage stamps all can be conveniently stored in small reclosable packages like jars or boxes.

RECYCLING PACKAGING MATERIALS

Glass

Glass is easily recyclable and saves up to 25 percent of the energy compared to making glass from new materials. However, glass is rarely made from 100 percent recycled glass, so the energy savings is usually less than 25 percent. Recycled glass containers can be used for food, and in fact glass containers can be refilled without recycling. Refilling is the most energy efficient use of glass containers.

Paper

Recycled newspapers are used to make your grey-colored cereal boxes and other food cartons. Recycling paper saves from 24 to 54 percent of the energy for paper manufacturing.

Steel

Steel is easy to recycle because it can be magnetically separated from other materials. In 1989, only about 15 percent of steel food and beverage cans were recycled. To make steel from scrap takes about half as much energy as making it from its traditional raw materials ­­ coal, iron ore and limestone.

Aluminum

The aluminum cans you buy your beverages in were most likely cans before. More than 54 percent of all aluminum beverage cans were recycled in 1988. They are typically recycled back into beverage cans. It's possible for an aluminum can to move from the retailer's shelf, to your home, into the recycling process and back to the store shelf in as little as six weeks. And, it can be recycled over and over again. An aluminum can you buy 20 years from now could contain some of the aluminum you recycled today! Producing new metal from used aluminum saves 95 percent of the energy needed to produce aluminum from ore. Recycling one 12 ounce aluminum can saves the equivalent of half of that same can, or six ounces, of gasoline. To illustrate the environmental impact of the energy lost when aluminum is not recycled, imagine burning six ounces of gasoline in the middle of your living room. Throwing away one aluminum can has the same impact in terms of pollution and wasting energy.

Plastic

Some types of plastic are currently recycled in large amounts. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is used for making the liter-size soft-drink bottle. It is recycled into such items as ski jackets, carpets and geotechnical materials like erosion control mesh. In 1988, 150 million pounds of PET were being reclaimed, and 600 million are estimated to be reclaimed in 1992. HDPE, or high-density polyethylene, is used for the gallon-size milk jug and is recycled into new containers for non-food items, such as dish detergent and other cleaners. In 1988, 60 million pounds were reclaimed. That's expected to increase to 560 million pounds in 1992.

Questions in Recycling Plastics

The technology for recycling other types of plastic is still being developed. Along with that, we need to develop the infrastructure for collecting, sorting and processing the plastic into new, useful products. Plastics of different resin type cannot be recycled together without producing a different type of plastic. To get the same type of plastic after recycling, they need to be sorted by resin type. If the plastics can be separated, as in the two-piece liter-size soft drink bottles, they can be recycled, but separation adds to the cost of recycling. Some recyclers can take a mixture of all types of plastic, to produce park benches, fence posts, parking stops and waterproof lumber for piers. Sometimes it is difficult to tell different plastic types apart. For this reason, the plastic producers have begun to code the containers they make with a number indicating the type of plastic resin used to make the container. However, there is controversy regarding the standards for classifying the plastics. At the present, it may not be practical to recycle certain types of plastic. For recycling to work, there needs to be a well-functioning, economically feasible, recycling system to convert a particular material into another marketable product. Polystyrene, for example, is recyclable, but the percentage actually recycled is limited.

CLOSING THE LOOP

You have a double role in recycling. You provide the raw materials from your trash, and, equally important, you need to buy the recycled material after it is make into something new. So, in fact, recycling has no end. It progresses in a loop, from purchase, use, recycle, reformulate, and resale. It is up to you, as an enviroshopper, to buy recycled materials whenever you can. Look for the recycled symbol on packages you buy. Remember that until large-scale markets are developed, recycled materials may cost more than new. But every time you buy a recycled product, you help to increase the market and bring down the cost. When you help to maintain the demand for recycled material, you also maintain the demand for your empty containers and worn-out goods ­­ in other words, a demand for your trash. Do your part to close the loop of recycling.

Footnotes

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