Part 1 - Packaging and Sustainability: can they go together?
This is not about getting likes or praises, weird food experiments or vegan ingredients. It is a post reflecting my fears of the hardest unlearning of all.
In any given day, the two largest food companies in the world sell over 3 billion single units combined (this number is probably out-dated), most of them having some sort of plastic-based non-degradable packaging material.
Less than 10% of plastic gets recycled (non-official number).
Even if I do not have precise numbers, just take a moment and think about that.
WHAT EXACTLY IS PACKAGING?
It is by chance that I ended up specializing as a packaging engineer and built a relatively successful career out of “bags, bottles, boxes and adhesive tape”.
“What exactly is packaging engineering?” … Im sure this question appeared in your mind.
Which is actually a question I frequently ask when interviewing young people that are applying for a packaging position at whatever company I happen to work at that time.
Think about the last time you bought a man-made product at the supermarket. You probably remember reading the design printed on it (the “artwork”, whose content has very little to do with engineering, as it is all marketing´s doings); but I bet you will only remember the packaging itself when you opened or closed it, or try to scoop/squeeze/dose product from it. Either it delivered fantastic results… or it failed miserably (ie. Broke, deformed, clogged, spilled, wasted, disappointed). Those are the only times that you will truly notice that packaging on your hand and curse at whoever was behind it.
In a nutshell, Packaging is supposed to deliver:
a) protection to the product it contains, from stuff coming out and stuff coming in,
b) a means to communicate with your consumers,
c) user experience or some sort of functionality.
I am a food engineer and in my uni there was only one semester offered in Packaging that was optional and I didn’t even chose those credits! Still (maybe fate) at my third real interview, I landed a dream job: Packaging Specialist at my beloved Alma-Mater: Nestle. Three countries, two continents and three different types of industries later… I can safely say I am good at what I do.
This is not an ego trip, it is an honest recount of the hardest thing for me to unlearn.
As a packaging engineer your scope of knowledge must be wide. You are supposed to choose the right type of packaging format, the right printing or decoration method to communicate whatever marketing is cooking up, and the right design to function properly at the hands of supply chain and your consumer. You are supposed to know what are the raw materials that can be used (plastic, paper, metal, glass, pigments, additives, adhesives, etc), which manufacturing technology is behind, who are the best industrial suppliers for your purpose and what the cost is. You must also have a basic sense of your consumer from the business point of view, shelf impact, demand & supply, purchasing strategies, regulatory restrictions and logistics.
One thing though: it is only in the recent years, that during design and development, we are supposed to think of the packaging´s “end of life” which means how “ready to be recovered, recycled or landfilled”. 15 years ago, this was not the top priority.
WHAT ARE THE MOST COMMON TYPES OF MATERIALS OUT THERE?
First of all: Let me say something about the three oldest types of packaging materials: Glass, metal and paper.
These three, have been around since industrialization happened, therefore its recycling capabilities have been around for a long time as well, at least in countries where waste separation exists. Metal can get sorted easily via magnets, making it one of the materials most likely to see a second life. For this reason I hope that the wonderfully old-school industry of food preserving in glass jars and metal cans is very much alive and one I hope it never ever goes away.
In addition to this, the paper and board industry -as long as it is sourced from sustainable forests- is also a mature industry where recycling should also be well established and proven, therefore it is not one that will change any time soon. That famous “FSC” (Forest Stewardship Council) stamp is no longer a marketing added value, but an industry standard.
Plastic though…We all should be really worried about this.
Second of all, let´s align concepts: plastic in my mind is any type of synthetic polymer, normally lightweight that delivers outstanding performance during its entire lifetime. I´m not gonna go into technical details, but one thing that needs to be clarified is this: all plastics are NOT the same and all plastics are NOT getting recycled on a regular basis. Soda “PET” bottles are a different monster than toothpaste tubes than the chocolate wrapper or even the printed labels on everything.
“Is plastic really that ubiquitous?” … You might wonder.
Set aside shipping boxes and cartons, set aside the glass jars and tin cans, set aside the premiumness that glass delivers for the booze industry (imagine a Johnny Walker Blue label in a PET bottle!) and cosmetics where plastic can be perceived as cheap, also set aside the alu cans from your weekend night beer run…Everything else that is part of a mainstream daily product has some sort of plastic involved.
Very important note for all consumers out there: Even if it feels like paper, looks like paper or has paper “on the outside”, the likelihood is almost certain that it has a plastic component somewhere. It is probably sold as “packaging contains paper” that makes you feel better about your choice. Sorry, but that is just… marketing.
Disclaimer: there are indeed some products already in the market that actually deliver the whole sustainable experience, maybe even marketed with the popular terms: “cradle-to-grave” or “circular economy”, and this cynical rant is probably clouding some of the true good out there. I just wish that these brave initiatives would be the industry standard, rather that some sparks of light in a rather dark greedy world.
“Wait, does everything need plastic? Are you sure?”… You will probably challenge me.
Well, remember a few paragraphs ago I mentioned the three deliverables for packaging design? a) protection b) communication and c) functionality. Sometimes for packaging to perform without plastic is just not feasible at the costs you are willing to pay for.
I need to unlearn this. There must be something we can all do, something I can do…
IS THE PANIC JUSTIFIED? Yes, it is.
I´m not talking about that shopping plastic bag floating in a random river leading to the Atlantic, turtles choking on straws, nylon fishing nets strangling sea lions or the tiny bits of “microplastic” floating in the five-star Caribbean resorts… but im talking about plastic EVERYWHERE that isn’t going ANYWHERE.
Don´t get me wrong: Im not trying to minimize ocean pollution. I am actually relieved that this is the flagship for the Sustainability awareness message because it truly makes the point beyond doubt. Imagine this: oceans cover the majority of the surface of our planet, imagine its vastness (*in Richard Attenbourough´s oracle sounding voice*). Yet plastic pollution has become so undeniably visible that it has raised red flags for scientists all over the globe.
The only downside of ocean pollution and plastic awareness is that the ocean “seems so far away”. What I am trying to say here is that we should all be seriously worried about everyday plastic in your home, supermarket, office, school… Just everywhere.
I don’t have certain numbers, and mind you, I do this for a living! I cannot tell how much plastic is being recycled in such a developed country like Germany or in Western Europe. Seems that less than 10% gets to see a second life and most of it is only beverage bottles… and what about the rest?
The paradox is the following: high performance of packaging goes against how easy to recycle or how landfill friendly it is. Meaning: the better your consumer experience and the happier the supply chain is with the design, normally means that piece of s#$%&t will stay in landfill until humans are extinct if it is not somehow brought back to the cycle.
Forget for a moment the most popularly demonized packaging materials, like your soda bottle, the styrofoam trays for your Friday night takeaway, the plastic straws or your morning to-go coffee cup. Think about every daily toiletries like lady razors and toothbrushes (with that comfy soft rubber handle grip thingy), that sexy hair conditioner bottle that is completely decorated with shiny metallic foils, think about that bathroom cleaner with a sophisticated spray pump… those are SUPER difficult to recycle, if not impossible without specialized technology.
Another type of garbage that is worth mentioning is “electronic waste”. Probably the most difficult waste of modern life. I am not very knowledgeable of it, but if I take a look with my packaging engineer eyes at my Iphone, my nice LED TV or my high speed blender, there are hundreds of different plastics, dozens of different metals and sometimes glass, all in the SAME unit. You cannot really separate it into recyclable units. You cannot get energy recovery because with metal and glass mixed in, it will not burn efficiently enough. What the hell do you do then?!
You probably heard about 40feet sea-shipping containers upon containers of electronic garbage from first world countries that get sent to Asia for them to “deal with it”. What?!
Imagine the responsibility and burden we put every single day on the waste management and recycling industry. Not only the sheer quantity of it, but the complexity of it.
They are supposed to be able
to collect, sort and recycle hundreds if not thousands different types of materials. They are supposed to do it in a timely manner otherwise our houses and streets get clogged with garbage bags. They are supposed to do it odor-free, quietly and invisibly… If they don’t accomplish all of that, then we bitterly complain from the comfort of our couches.
So, there are THREE options for our garbage as far as consumer´s perception go:
1) recycling,
2) energy recovery,
3) landfill be it local or “foreign”.
If the recycling facilities cannot manage -more often than not- the garbage is sent to energy recovery. If the furnaces are not functioning efficiently or being checked or not making enough money… then it is sent to landfill.
If Asian/Third world countries will not accept anymore wealthy people garbage… Then what?
(By the way, I am SO happy that countries like Indonesia have finally taken a courageous hard stance against EU and sending the containers back! Good for them!).
“Wait a minute”…
Energy recovery seems like the logic way out, right? We burn plastic and we get KiloWatts back sent into the energy grid. What a great idea!
Have you ever burned plastic when you were a kid? Take a lighter and set your Barbie´s head on fire? Remember that black smoke and choking smell?
Now imagine doing that at an industrial scale of thousands of tons of waste. Those furnaces have to be in top-notch condition to avoid those nasty fumes getting to the atmosphere, while getting only a fraction of the energy back. If those emissions are not checked regularly, the health trade-offs for the nearby communities is massive.
I wish I was educated enough to be able to quote all those cases of un-regulated energy recovery gone bad, that ended up with entire populations of people and farm animals battling cancer and genetic mutations…
No, energy recovery is NOT our “get out of jail” free card in the modern world.
Recap: Recycling capabilities are short, we should be careful to burn this stuff for energy… Next up: Landfill! What happens when the landfills overflow? Do we then throw our unmanageable garbage in space?! (That is one serious project for Elon Musk right there!).
In my packaging saturated mind, I don’t think the current waste management schemes are sustainable in the medium term… and there is not enough talk about this.
“Nah! The European Union has lots of technology and capabilities, right?? After all, Western Europe is indeed the modern world panacea” … This is what I thought when I first started to deep dive into this topic.
Continues in part 2…
