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There is so much waste in packaging — from
water in self-serve bottles to all the foil and cardboard wrapping for new
print cartridges. What is being done to make packaging more “green
friendly,” including cutting out as much of it as possible?
Thanks to forward-thinking action by the European
Union, people around the world are beginning to recognize that wasteful
packaging puts unnecessary stress on the environment. In 1994 the EU issued
a “Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste,” putting the
responsibility of waste reduction and reclamation on manufacturers instead
of on retailers, consumers, and local governments. The program, popularly known as “Producer
Pays” or “Extended Producer Responsibility,” requires
product makers to either take back their packaging (consumers can leave it
behind in the store or send it back in the mail at the producers’
expense) or pay a fee to an organization called Green Dot that will handle
it for them. Green Dot is now the standard take-back program in two dozen
European countries. The concept has been adopted by many industrialized
nations — including Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Japan,
Korea, and Taiwan — but not yet by the United States, which could
certainly benefit. Here, we keep piling on. The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency estimates that municipalities generated 88 million tons
of solid waste in 1960. By 2001, that number had climbed to 229 million
tons, with containers and packaging making up almost a third of the weight.
Maine, which has initiated its own “Producer
Pays” program — the first in the United States, requires
electronics makers to fund consolidation centers where used TV and computer
monitors are sent. Some U.S. companies are also taking initiative.
Microsoft worked with Packaging 2.0, a packaging-solutions company that
recycles used materials into new packaging, to develop an environmentally
responsible and reusable package for its line of GPS consumer-electronics
products, and a number of other companies, including Unilever, Johnson
& Johnson, Kraft Foods, Microsoft and Nike, have come together under
the umbrella of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, a project of the
nonprofit GreenBlue, and released a guide for designers and developers to
assist them in designing sustainable packaging. In February 2008 Wal-Mart will implement a
“packaging scorecard” to measure and evaluate its entire supply
chain. Goals include using less packaging and using more sustainable
materials in packaging. According to Wal-Mart, the company is already
beginning to make headway. “By reducing the packaging on one of our
patio sets,” says the company Web site, “we were able to use
400 fewer shipping containers to deliver them. We created less trash and
saved our customers a bundle while doing it.”
For more information:
Green Dot, www.packaging-waste.com; Sustainable Packaging Coalition,
www.sustainablepackaging.org.
Send questions to Earth Talk, care of E/The Environmental Magazine,
P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881 or e-mail earthtalk@emagazine.com.
This article appears in Apr 19-25, 2007.
