Sustainable Taboo

Steve brings up important issues that reflect what appears to be the leading edge of public awareness of this topic, when people think of these things at all. Most people are surprised that the average Chinese person has much more awareness of packaging issues than the average American does. In fact, Americans lag just about everybody in the 'first world' except the British! Americans, however, do respond well to marketing. The comments Steve's post brought up present valid facts, statistics, and viewpoints. I would like to add a different, broader, perspective. The US farm subsidy program is of high economic significance to powerful interests. Unless or until an opposing economic force counteracts it, government policy will lumber on its current trajectory, despite it's apparent folly and alarm it raises. The packaging industry must deal with these market distortions, just like we have to pay taxes. Rising petroleum prices will cause plant resin prices to rise in step because petroleum is a major agricultural input. Just like ethanol, plant resisns may seem 'greener' than they actually are to the public, for a while. The marketing battles have just begun. I believe an important property of truth is its durability. It may take a while, but the truth will be told. Plant resins are here to stay and even though they aren't perfect ecologically, they represent a vast improvement over conventional plastics. If the oceanic garbage patches were all PLA, the environment would not be facing the long term destruction is is now undergoing. Unfortunately, conventional plastics will be made until the last drop of petroleum is sucked out of the ground. Mere environmental concerns are not enough to stop this economic juggernaut; only equal and opposing economic forces will; be they disaster, war or other interests. My hope is that plastic won't always be squandered by using it as single use packaging; far better to use it for durable goods. As a species, we need to get more value from something that is so ultimately expensive. Conventional plastics are not inert, and are not harmless in landfills. It just depends on how short/long sighted your viewpoint is. As plastic breaks down over the millenia, its monomers - it's very molecules, are mildly toxic to life, such as acting as hormone disrupters among other serious concerns . No big deal in small doses, but at our current scale it is a big deal. The biology of our planet will be forever be impacted by our short-sighted behaviours now. The real answer is 'back to the future' paper based packaging. Wood and other celllulostic paper inputs are not highly petro-input intensive and are a part of the life cycle. That is, the carbon that is emitted when paper decomposes is re-absorbed by its replacement plants, not adding to the overall carbon load. On a more immediate scale, paper also enjoys extremely high recycling rates because it has an established recycling stream. In landfills, all of which will ultimately fail, the paper content, as well as the PLA content, won't pose the harm plastics and other common chemicals will. The main issues packaging users have with paper packaging versus plastic and plant resisns are: attractive visibility of consumer goods, appropriate product protection, product differentiation, and cost. Simple, clever and elegant designs combined with production at scale are addressing these shortcomings and promise an authentic sustainable solution. My company, Eco Vision, is only beginning to scratch the surface of genuine green packaging. There are almost unlimited opportunities to fulfill with fiber. Focus your efforts on the real answers, not half measures. I challenge you the think outside the plastic box and explore solutions that aren't petroleum clones. Looking forward, the most sustainable packaging will employ high fibrous inputs with moderate plant resin inputs and minimal metals and synthetics. When the dust settles in a generation or two (hopefully sooner), this will become the dominant packaging paradigm. In the meantime, the march has begun.

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