Scope of Problem

SCOPE OF PROBLEM

Packaging plays an innate and important role in the lives of almost every human on earth. All materials used for packaging good are derived from natural resources such as oil, metal ores, sand, and trees, which are processed and converted into plastic, aluminum, metal, glass, wood and paper for both our health and convenience. Wherever there is a packaged product, there is packaging waste. Once the products contained within packages are consumed, the packages themselves lose their protective, containment or transportation function, and are often discarded as packaging waste and is headed towards a future as reused or recycled packaging materials, or, in most cases, as landfill or incinerator fodder. No debate exists as to whether there are negative consequences to the environment caused by wastes from discarded packaging from consumer products. Packaging for consumer products is created by human society to cater to its own needs. 

In the book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, authors McDonough and Braungart note that “More than 90 percent of materials extracted to make durable goods in the US become waste almost immediately”. Problems arising from waste—landfill leachate and methane emissions, destructive materials sourcing, production, and transportation, and marine debris—has taken a toll on our environment.The more developed the society, the more packaging is manufactured and consequently disposed off. The solutions to reduction of packaging wastes, therefore, must burden human society and the companies in industrialized nation-states that manufacture most consumer products and accompanying packaging materials. 

Do we really need to pack everything?