Can eco packaging really change the world?

Clear PLA takeaway cups different sizes

Like any question concerning a complex issue, the answer can only be multifaceted. Eco packaging can never, by itself, change the world, but it is essential to trigger the ecological change that has been so much hoped for in recent times. The first reason to support this thesis is simple: using biodegradable or cardboard containers avoids the abuse of plastic. Which is not the evil of the century, but one of the causes of thecurrent environmental alarm. Too much plastic in the seas and oceans, too much plastic leaked into the environment, too much plastic in general.

The dark side of this polymer that has changed habits and production and distribution chains around the world-mostly for the better, no doubt-is its lifespan. Plastic takes hundreds of years before it disappears from the face of the Planet. The overproduction of plastic materials in recent decades has meant that even if plastic is disposed of properly in the recycling bin, it still ends up leaking into the environment. The point is that too much of it is being produced relative to disposal times. And while in many sectors (two out of all: food and health care) it is necessary and a guarantor of high standards of hygiene, in everyday use it is overused. In fact, many times unnecessary.

Food packaging, the possible alternatives

White color pulp bottom plate.

Specifically, just think of food delivery and related packaging: a hit-and-run use with a life cycle of a few hours, if not a few minutes. Just enough time to consume the take-out lunch, favorite smoothie or fried food from the neighborhood street food joint, and before long the packaging is tossed in the trash. After all, food packaging cannot be done without. At least, not in 2019. So how to solve the age-old issue of surplus plastic waste? One solution could be eco-friendly packaging: containers made of bioplastics, mater bi, bagasse, cardboard. Just to name a few of the alternative materials. Avoiding plastic can be done, at least where it is possible.

Although we at Cartaria Italiana firmly believe in the benefits of environmentally friendly packaging, it is not our only choice. There are essentially two reasons for this: the first is that we believe it is right to give our customers alternatives. Choosing the ideal product is not always easy. If you have read the stories of Nanie and Bowl!, you will know that finding the right item for one’s needs requires careful study. Often our search goes beyond the items in the catalog. Then there is another factor, which is essential to understanding the implications of a 360-degree ecological vision.

As Daniel Goleman writes in Ecological Intelligence,

“No object of industrial production can be totally green […] every manufacturing process has, somewhere, negative impacts on the environmental system. The term environmentally friendly should never be used. Any manufactured object is only relatively environmentally friendly.”
Which says a lot about what impact human beings have on the Planet. The most forward-looking human and environmentally friendly solution would be to produce and consume nothing more than what Mother Nature gives us. A rather utopian vision. Yet, we have to start somewhere.

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