A Good Wrap
The Sunday Age
Sunday March 9, 2008
New technology can literally melt away packaging waste. But it's not the complete solution to the packaging problem, says Karin Derkley.
You savour the chocolates until all that is left is the beautifully moulded plastic packaging. Oh dear, another bit of plastic to add to the tonnes that Australians throw out each year. Except that this packaging isn't plastic at all. It's produced from corn-starch and, according to Plantic Technologies, the company that produces the chocolate trays for Cadbury, Lindt and Pink Lady, it will break down into carbon dioxide and water in your home compost bin within a week, and a little longer in landfill.The biotechnology that makes packaging compostable can be used in food packaging and other products. Apart from chocolate trays, Plantic's products include compostable cookie wrappers (for Byron Bay Cookie Company) and plant pots that can be planted along with the seedlings. Bubblewrap has also been made biodegradable, by another Melbourne company, Sancell; its product EnviroBubble breaks down in the soil and can also be recycled.Creating packaging that literally melts away seems an ideal solution to the mountain of rubbish we produce as consumers, salving the guilt many of us feel when we toss yet another yoghurt container into the bin. It's one of a number of ways that the packaging industry is responding to concerns about the environmental impact of packaging."We're very aware that sustainability has become a huge mainstream issue," says the executive director of the Packaging Council of Australia (PCA), Gavin Williams. The PCA recently released its 2008 Packaging Awards to recognise designs that improve the recyclability or reusability of packaging, or that reduce the amount of materials or bulk in packaging and containers.The plastic trays in Arnott's biscuits packages, for instance, are now completely recyclable - the old style ones contaminated the recycle process. Toyota has redesigned the boxes used in transporting bumper bars to use less cardboard, allowing more to be stacked up on the back of a truck - thus reducing the greenhouse-gas emissions produced in transportation.But not everyone thinks that the packaging problem is on its way to being eliminated. Environmental groups say that progress on sustainable packaging is still too slow. Mark Doggett, the Zero Waste campaign director at Environment Victoria, says that the kinds of examples recognised by the packaging awards are just exceptions to the rule. "We still see far too much packaging being manufactured without any regard to the environment," he says.Environment Victoria has its own packaging anti-awards - the DUMP (Damaging and Useless Materials in Packaging) Awards - that highlight poor packaging practices that Doggett says are only the worst examples of common problems."Take our winner of our Golden DUMP award, the Gillette Fusion razor," Doggett says. "The large lurid package crammed with no less than five pieces of plastic packaging may catch shoppers' attention on a crowded supermarket shelf, but it's an outrageous waste of resources that just ends up in landfill."Another example of packaging gone badly wrong is the bag of Apple Snacks holding four smaller plastic bags of slices of raw apple. "This is a ludicrous packaging 'innovation' that turns an apple - which comes in its own, time-proven and natural packaging - into a grossly over-packaged fast food," says Doggett.Compostable packaging - as long as it leaves no toxic residue - may be better than the kind of packaging that takes hundreds of years to break down in landfill, or ends up joining the monstrous swirl of plastic accumulating in the world's oceans.But as Clare Donovan, project officer at the GreenHome program at the Australian Conservation Foundation, points out, it's important to remember that compostable and recyclable packaging still uses precious resources such as energy and water when they are manufactured. (Plantic says that the energy consumed in producing its chocolate trays is about half that of petrochemically derived plastics.)Another problem with compostable or biodegradable packaging is that it reinforces the idea of packaging as something to be discarded, adds Doggett. "We really want to get across to people how wrong it is to be pulling stuff out of the earth only to throw it away a little while later," he says.What Donovan and Doggett would like to see is consumers who avoid buying over-packaged products as much as possible. "Reuse containers when you're shopping at the supermarket," says Donovan, "or, better still, join a co-op where you can buy in bulk and virtually cut out packaging altogether."But PCA's Williams does have a good word for packaging. He points out that well-designed packaging actually saves energy and resources being wasted when food is spoilt or goods are damaged. "You've got to remember that packaging is there primarily to make sure that goods get to the consumer in good condition," he says.How to reduce waste- Buy products that are reusable or come in reusable packaging - and actually reuse them.- Avoid items that are excessively packaged.- If you can't reuse them, buy products that are recyclable and/or come in recyclable packaging.- Avoid items designed to be used once only, such as foam, paper or plastic cups, plastic bags, plastic cutlery and plates etc.- Take your own bags when shopping instead of accepting plastic ones - not just to the supermarket, but to take-aways and convenience shops, as well.- Take your own containers to the deli, butcher, take-away or fruit shop.- Buy in bulk when you can and take your own containers and bags.Source: ACF Green Home
© 2008 The Sunday Age