Excess Packaging

by Lawson Schaller

Packaging is something that uses up an awful lot of resources. To make matters worse, it is often used only once and immediately discarded. However, more and more packaging is recyclable, made from recycled content and/or reusable. Remember the milk crates with the reusable milk bottles?

You may have noticed that one of the recurring themes I write about is how conserving resources can, and often does, save a lot of money. Not only does it save money, but it also saves significant wear and tear on Mother Nature.

Considering and Controlling Packaging Costs to the Consumer

Packaging can represent a significant portion of a product's selling price. Knowthis.com estimates that "in the cosmetics industry, packaging cost of some products may be as high as 40% of a product's selling price." An Ohio State study suggests it averages around 10%. The study also says there are primary, secondary, and tertiary components of packaging. Primary is what directly holds the product (bottle, tube, etc.), secondary is to protect, inform, label, and display the product. Tertiary is typically the cardboard box that acts as a case for all the primary or secondary packaging.

It seems that if corporations were to use less packaging material, we could pay less. The corporations could save money on packaging. One of their primary concerns is shelf space - Display! Promotion! Sales! How many times have your purchased an item in a box and found the box to be two to three times bigger than necessary. This seems to be especially true for small cosmetic and health care items.

Have Some Input

As the old saying goes, we can vote with our feet and our dollars. Please consider this on your next purchase. If you are buying identical or similar products, check to see if one of them has less packaging. For example, I went into the store to buy some Ibuprofen. To my surprise there was a generic store brand sitting on the shelf in a small bottle, no box! Next to it on the shelf were other, same item products in bottles, inside boxes. Same item, same count, just one had a box and the other did not. I bought the bottle with no secondary packaging.

In addition, it seems that less packaging would allow more products per pallet, therefore more pallets per truck, which equates to fewer trucks running down the road – both of which should result in cost reductions for corporations and lower prices for consumers. Am I missing something? Corporations spend less, consumers spends less, and Mother Nature gets a breather, to renew. That old saying, "less is more," seems to keep coming back.

Green Washing

There are improvements taking place in the packaging world. Corporations are seeing the cost benefit and the "green" marketing advantage (though beware of green washing - "the unjustified appropriation of environmental virtue by a company, an industry, a government, a politician or even a non-government organization to create a pro-environmental image, sell a product or a policy, or to try and rehabilitate their standing with the public and decision makers after being embroiled in controversy") of using less packaging. There have been some attempts at regulation, including mandating more recycled content in packaging (less virgin material), or costs up front to the manufacturer to help offset costs to dispose/recycle of the packaging ( sometimes called "advance disposal fees"). There have also been attempts at "take back programs," which give manufacturers the responsibility of products and packaging after their use is over, although I think that primarily deals with the product more than the packaging.

Reuse Packaging

Finally, think of ways to reuse packaging. I'm sure many of you already do. Reuse bread bags and the like for food storage. Wine boxes make good storage for tubes of caulk and such. They also work well for file folders- they need to be cut down and are a bit wide but work fine for those folders you only need so often and easily store under beds etc. Six pack cartons - You may have seen restaurants use them to hold ketchup, mustard, hot sauce etc. Spice bottles can be reused when buying spices in bulk. Plastic food containers from salsa, yogurt etc. makes for good food storage. Baby food jars can be the right size for many applications – especially the craft people. Shoe boxes are often sturdy and have good fitting lids. Shipping boxes and padding can be reused. Some retail shipping service stores will accept clean packaging materials for reuse.

Speaking of packaging material, how about hemp? It is said that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Ben Franklin grew hemp. Evidently hemp is quite a renewable resource. Of course I am speaking of the non-medicinal variety. Perhaps more on hemp in next month's issue.

Great Horned Owl image on banner by Cleve Nash