Green Way Packers
by Trey Granger on February 16th, 2008
Quick: name the largest contributer to our nation’s landfills.
- Electronics? They may be the most toxic contributer, but not the largest.
- Food waste? It may be the smelliest, but it makes up less than three percent.
- Paper? We go through a lot of it, but over half is recycled. The real answer is . . .
Packaging
To be fair, paper products do make up 52 percent of our packaging. You’ll also find packaging made of aluminum, glass, plastic and steel. This may explain why these five are the most common materials collected in curbside programs.
Many companies have responded to the packaging conundrum with reduction in mind. Less individual packaging. Lighter packing materials. This means less packaging volume in landfills.
But what about reducing the presence of packaging in landfills? A large part of that responsibility falls on the consumer, but some companies are doing everything they can to encourage the recycling process.
Recycled Content Packaging
The second arrow of the recycling symbol represents creating new products from ones that are recycled. So if you see packaging that says, “Made from __% recycled content,” that’s part of recycling.
Take the example of imoeba, a company that manufactures iPod cases. The cases themselves are made from recycled leather, and the packaging is 90 percent recycled paper.This packaging is only using 10 percent raw materials, and the rest of the content has been rescued from landfills. In an ideal world the packaging will be recycled again.
For imoeba, the packaging has an Earth 911 Call-to-Action on the box that encourages consumers to continue the recycling process.
Consumers can support this cycle in two ways:
- Recycle packaging of products they buy
- Look for packaging made from recycled content
That’s product stewardship in a nutshell.
5:11 pm on February 26th, 2008
Obviously being a responsible consumer is one great way to improve the waste situation around packaging. Another great way is to write your political representatives and encourage them to pass laws that will make packaging restrictions tougher.
Canada, with the worst waste-per-capita in the world, is re-evaluating their packaging regulations presently, and struggling with it. If you live in Canada, writing your rep right now couldn’t be more timely!
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2:54 pm on March 1st, 2008
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1:13 pm on March 6th, 2008
hello, im struggle find the size of small energy saver bulb that can fit my small lamp and it is night lamp. None of these energy saver bulb fits my night lamp. it waste my time to return the bulbs to the stores. where i can find the small regular size as normal as energy saver bulb? The reason why i had to take off the lamp shade the energy saver bulb can fit but without lamp shade! i want lamp shade back along with the energy saver bulb. Plus, where i can find reasonable price energy bulb. since im not that great budget to buy expensive energy saver bulb. i know i have seen in some store has energy saver bulb but they are expensive. i cannot afford for one.
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