For the last quarter of my book I covered eleven chapters, pages 108-157. The main topics of this quarter were on bioplastics, Ideas of Global reviving on the economy and tips for what individuals can do. I'm going to break it up into 3 sections based on the main topics.
Bioplastics:
Bioplastics are plastic packaging made out of plant materials that can decompose. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has been promoting biofineries as a national renewable resource strategy. Biofineries are mills that produce fuels, power, heat, etc from biomass. There are 3 categories of bioplastic engineering in the U.S.:converting plant starches and sugars into plastics, producing plastics inside microorganisms via fermentation, and genetically modifying crops such as corn and rapeseed so that they actually GROW PLASTIC! I'm not sure how I feel about that one. Bioplastics look like a good solution on the surface but we would need a lot of corn to produce the 30 million tons of plastic polymers consumed in the U.S. every year. Agriculture will have to change radically from how it is now. The author doesn't believe that bioplastics will fix the packaging problem. He writes, "rather than changing the core of our convenience-oriented society by offering deep systemic solutions, bioplastics seem to offer a plant based techno-fix to our existing consumption habits."
Global Revival of Local Economies:
This part of the book was about the consumers role in packaging. Getting coffee consumes up to 100 million throwaway cups, lids, and sleeves in a day in the U.S. alone. Just by using a reusable cup, you can reduce the amount of energy, water use, air emissions, water pollution and solid waste by 85-99%! People can also help their economies just by the food they buy.
Farm-in-a-box or Community-supported-agriculture, is a movement that unites consumers with nearby farmers with the concept of locally grown, seasonal produce. People pay an advanced agreed upon fee to farmers before the season begins, and in return, during the season, those who pay receive fruits and vegetables each week. It is a good approach to food distribution, consumption and packaging. Another way to look at food is through something called Food Miles. This Measures the distance an item has traveled between the field and dinner table. Today, the average a food item travels in the U.S. is 2,000 miles. The next solution is called The Buy local Campaign. This is an organized national coalition in the U.S. These campaigns address the issues surrounding faraway food production. One campaign challenged people to buy $10 worth of produce from their state farmers each week because this could pump $100 million into the regional farm economy.
What can you do?
Though we can't limit how much packaging companies use, we can do some things to minimize damage on a daily basis. We can support local farmers, carry reusable mugs and water bottles, take time to eat rather than take out, have cloth shopping bags,and write letters to companies to reduce. You can minimize take out packaging by staying at a restaurant instead of eating on the go. Establish a reusable packaging policy in your home, and last but not least, be clear about your ecological footprint.
This book goes over how much packaging waste we have. It discusses the waste not only from the packaging itself, but the costs in energy and resources that we use to make this packaging. The author gives solutions to improve upon the packaging problem and discusses not only how companies can save packaging, but how we as consumers can also save packaging and thus resources.
The three most significant things I learned from this book were:
- How much plastic the U.S. alone wastes.
- The U.S. seems to care the least about environmental impacts of packaging compared to other countries.
- There are some packaging reforms out there, we just need to improve and implement them.
Since I live in the U.S. this book means a lot to me, because our country uses the most waste and seems relatively uneducated about it. I didn't know how much waste packaging created. Or maybe I did, but I never really thought much about it. Seeing pictures of rivers filled with plastic and reading about all the resources we use to make packaging is very eye-opening. It's also frustrating, because you want to change that, but as a consumer can only start with small steps to try to contribute to a bigger change. I would recommend this book, because it is not very long but it contains a lot of information. It not only informs readers about packaging waste, but gives tips about how to minimize the waste. As the author said earlier in the book, it shouldn't be about picking the lesser of two evils. So the next time you're asked Paper or Plastic, I hope you say neither, and pull out a reusable bag.
For this quarter of the book I read 8 chapters which covered pages 54-108. The main topics of these chapters are source reduction and wood reduction. Source reduction is the change in the design of materials and wood reduction is reducing the amount of wood-based packaging.
Source Reduction is one of the most effective strategies for businesses to reduce solid waste right away. Packages can be eliminated and products can be redesigned for source reduction. Goals of source reduction are to reduce volume of packaging in the waste stream, reduce amount of packaging used, reduce package weight to save transportation energy, and to support suppliers who recycle waste. Aluminum cans were trimmed down from 21 to 12 grams between 1970 and 1998. The company that makes Clif Bar stopped shrink wrapping the bulk product boxes and saved $445,000 a year by eliminating $90,000 pounds of plastic.
Forests are the primary source of packaging materials. Wood-based products are the largest part of the municipal waste stream. This means that forests are under assault from industrial operations that fill wood supplies. We humans tend to forget that intact forests are home to and support the highest levels of biodiversity. "Only 20% remains of the world's original ancient forests large enough to maintain their inherent biodiversity".We are a society addicted to wood and it's a problem that is ignored. There are only a few public policies that call for an environmentally preferable packaging. The book lists the different types of wood based packaging:- Paper:Paper consumption more than tripled between 1961 and 1998. More than 600 lbs of paperboard are consumed each year per person in the U.S.
- Corrugated box materials:Can be recycled just about anywhere, however, boxes dirty with grease, like pizza boxes, usually can't be recycled.
- Boxboard:Often used as a secondary packaging for items.
- Solid-wood packaging materials:Building these pallets consume 40% of all hardwoods and 10% of all lumber cut in the U.S. each year.
- Wood Shavings:Used as a filler in shipping containers.
The problem is how much wood packaging is used and that there are no ordinances against it. A product ordered and shipped from the internet comes in a corrugated box, which contains "filler" made of paper, to cushion the item. Then the actual product may come in it's own packaging; maybe a box filled with more paper. Wood based packaging seems to be on the backburner of environmental issues.The author lists some solutions to the problem. I will name just three of his ideas.- Source Avoidance: Companies pledge to avoid using wood-based products that are sourced from remaining biologically intact forests.
- Source Protection: Nations can direct tax dollars and incentives toward long-term conservation of remaining forests.
- Perception adjustment:We must challenge the notion that wood is preferable to plastic because it is a renewable source. All packaging production carries impacts. Our challenge is to make the best resource decisions possible for the long term.
I think the biggest challenge is to convince people that just because wood is a renewable source, it doesn't mean that the environment isn't suffering. The environmental impact of paper is just as important as the impact of plastic.
For the Second quarter of the book I covered 9 chapters, pages 27-53. The main topics that these chapters covered are good and bad solutions to the plastic problem. These chapters are about searching for solutions.
The first chapter talks about bottled water. As you may have noticed, bottled water is pretty popular. By the turn of the century, 22 billion U.S. gallons were bottled and sold; it was just 300 million gallons in 1970. That's 1.5 million tons of plastics per year from bottles. I agree with the author when he says that single use water containers probably emerged because of demand for on-the-go societies. According to the author, 25% of bottled water is traded and consumed outside of it's original country and another 25% is actually tap water. It seems like a big waste of plastic to buy bottled water that you could get out of your own facet.
The book talks about some solutions to reduce packaging. Some activists believe there should be post-consumer content laws, which would require producers to use a given percentage of recycled materials in the bottles they produce. Though there are many ideas,there is at least one solution for single-use bottles and that is "clean water, flowing from taps, water coolers, fountains, and home filtration equipment, and toted around in reusable containers." In other words, don't buy bottled water. Get it from home and use a reusable water bottle. The correct answer to the paper or plastic question is "neither." We want to eliminate, reduce, refill and recycle but even better then that would be to come up with better ways of consuming, producing, packaging and reusing products. Instead of settling for the lesser of two evils (paper or plastic) as the author puts it, we need to change how we live our lives.
This quarter of the book talked a lot about Extended Producer Responsibility or EPR. EPR means that a packages end-of-life is the responsibility of it's manufacturer or distributor. As of 2003, 31 countries adopted EPR or take back laws. The U.S. is not one of them. The EU (European Union) has been strengthening the standards of packaging. The book even said that lawmakers in most countries don't question whether there should be national take-back laws for products but instead question what form makes the most sense. However, the U.S. remains on holdout in adopting EPR legislation and is not included as being one of those countries.
It's nice to know that some places are making a change, however, I wish the U.S. would follow the E.U.'s example. We need to think of better solutions and implement them. I think it would help to have EPR laws. Holding manufacturer's and distributors accountable is something to be done because they are the ones who design, advertise, and distribute the waste in the first place.
In "Paper or Plastic: Solutions to an Overpackaged World," I covered 9 chapters, pages 1-26. The main topic that these chapters are about are the packaging of products. Packaging has become an essential part of our lives in our daily needs. American's have a tendency to overpackage.Think about how many things you buy that are covered in plastic wrap. Containers and packaging represent the largest amount of U.S. municipal solid waste (household waste) at 75 million tons. An interesting survey result done in 2001, reported that 80 percent of the people surveyed bought Christmas presents for their pets and 67 percent wrapped them. I personally have never thought about that waste before and have to admit that I'm guilty of doing this. I mean, do pets really need to have things wrapped up?
Packaging uses a lot of energy because to make packaging they are turning raw materials into finished products. Producing 1 ton of paper consumes over 98 tons of resources. Recycling glass saves about 1/4 of the energy over virgin materials production. Unfortunately, plastic has has been steadily replacing glass since the 1970's. I myself recently have noticed some drinks in the store that have always been in glass bottles and are now in plastic.
One chapter talks about the impact of food and packaging production. For every 100 pounds of food waste Americans throw away, 65 pounds of packaging waste was also thrown away. All this packaging waste uses a lot of energy and resources. We could save so much by buying locally grown food. It saves energy because it's not being transported from far away,it saves waste because it's not in packaging, and it is also probably healthier than most foods that are packaged seeing as how most packaged foods are processed foods. I don't think we really want the rest of the world to increase it's packaging. If Americans waste this much, how much more waste would their be if every other country did the same? Plastics are increasingly being co-mingled with other materials, which decreases the recyclability of plastics. Even though you may recycle, not every plastic is. It's hard to make a change, since it's the companies packaging everything in plastic, but you personally can start by buying foods locally. It wouldn't hurt to spread the word either. Teach others about how much damage plastic can do and, oh yeah, don't wrap presents for pets.
Image is of a river in Indonesia.
The book I chose to read is called Paper or Plastic: Searching for Solutions to an Overpackaged World by Daniel Imhoff. The book is about how much waste is used to create paper and plastic bags; and how much waste we cause by using them. The book tells about how people can make a more sustainable future. I chose to read this book because where I work, we are trying to get people to go bag free or use reusable bags. We are always supposed to ask customers if they NEED and bag and not if they WANT a bag. I think it would be really interesting to learn more about the waste people cause with bags.
3 Links about book:
- Powell's Books
- Green Muze
- Watershed Media
The book is 168 pages and has about 24 chapters. Therefore, I will split it up by reading 6 chapters for every quarter of the book.
My name is Alyssa and I am a Junior majoring in Health Education (Community). I love spending time outdoors; especially hiking in the woods surrounded by trees. The picture on the left is from a hike I took this summer. I hope you enjoy the environment too because this blog is going to be all about Environmental Health.
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Have a Treeific Time reading! I hope you can learn something new about Environmental Health from this blog and start taking steps to make this world a healthier place!
