Packaging and Environment Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Packaging is any form of material or process used to prepare goods for distribution and sale in the market. It includes tin cans, paper and plastic bags, polystyrene balls, and high-tech covering for human organs transported from one hospital to another for transplanting. From a business perspective, there are many reasons for using packaging. The first and in many cases most important of these is to protect perishable items, such as eggs, from being damaged. A second reason for packaging is to provide needed information for consumers and retailers. This includes guidelines for use in the case of pharmaceuticals, ingredient lists and nutritional information for food items, and advertising for point-of-purchase sales promotion. Increasingly, consumer groups and others are putting pressure on governments to improve the amount and quality of such information on packaging.

The use of tin in the United States on a largescale basis dates to the American Civil War (1861-65), when the mobilization of large numbers of soldiers required industrialized catering and stimulated the mining of tin in British Malaya and elsewhere. However, packaging has been used since the very earliest days of trade, as items were transported from community to community in clay amphorae or wrapped in banana leaves or other natural items. Ethnic minority groups prior to industrialization have shown considerable resourcefulness in using leaves, bamboo, and other plant or animal parts to create containers and other forms of packaging. These materials have the advantage of being mostly reusable, and rarely have negative environmental impacts when discarded. Even so, excessive use of particular items can lead to unsustainable practices.

The Industrial Revolution and subsequent internationalization of production and distribution massively increased the amount of packaging produced and used around the world and sparked the search for solutions that were lower cost and provided regularity of supply. This led to the exploitation of polymer-long molecular chains with properties suitable for creating moldable products-that were produced as plastics of various types from hydrocarbon by-products. Industrial processes soon found ways to mass produce plastic items in great numbers and at very low cost, and these were attractive to manufacturers and retailers, especially when methods of introducing lettering and graphics on plastic bags were developed. Advertising opportunities on such bags have encouraged redundancy of packaging.

The nature and extent of forms of packaging depend on cultural and geographical considerations. In urban environments such as Australia and the United States, people customarily have spacious housing and travel by car to supermarkets. In these cases, shoppers will buy large amounts of products in large containers or multiple unit packs. By contrast, people living in Hong Kong or Japan, where living space is at a premium, purchase items in much smaller unit sizes and numbers. Manufacturers and retailers must retain flexible packaging systems that can cater to these different requirements. The use of different languages, as mandated by governments importing manufactured items, also causes firms additional expense.

The amount and type of packaging has provoked considerable controversy because of concerns about the waste of resources and the impact that packaging has upon the environment. Some forms of packaging may be biodegradable, but many plastic shrink wrappings and bags remain in a similar form for extended periods. If the packaging is not dealt with effectively, it then contributes to pollution and negative health outcomes. In Bangkok, the propensity for people to throw plastic bags away in the street means they are caught in the canal and drainage system and contribute to flooding during the monsoon season, and the spread of waterborne diseases in the floods. Plastics have negative effects on waterways, rivers, and oceans, damaging and poisoning marine life. Even organic packaging material can contribute to problems.

The main methods taken to tackle the overuse of packaging or the use of unsustainable forms of packaging have included consumer education, recycling campaigns, and regulation and taxation of undesirable products. In developed countries, particularly in Europe and East Asia, most people have become aware of these issues and increasingly participate in systems in which shoppers provide their own reusable shopping bags and shops do not routinely give away plastic bags but will offer them for sale if requested. Using this system has helped in improving the quality and beauty of public spaces in cities such as Taipei. Meanwhile, recycling campaigns in the United Kingdom require most residents to sort their rubbish into one of several categories, including the kinds of plastic bags most commonly associated with packaging. Different categories have colorcoded or day-coded means of collection and local councils are responsible for enforcing compliance.

No matter how intense or well-focused government or community support is for the reduction of packaging problems, there are still strong motivations for business to continue to use it extensively. As long as production and ultimate consumption remain separated by wide distances, goods will need to be protected to retain freshness and quality. In modern business, most consumer goods companies also rely on intangible assets such as brands and reputation for the bulk of their profits, and these are sustained by reminders of corporate identity, for which packaging is the most suitable medium.

Bibliography:

Olga Ampuero and Natalia Vila, “Consumer Perceptions of Product Packaging,” The Journal of Consumer Marketing (v.23/2, 2006);
Hitchens, “Environmental Policy and the Implications for Competitiveness in the Regions of the EU,” Regional Studies (v.31/8, 1997);
Diane Mollenkopf et al., “Assessing the Viability of Reusable Packaging: A Relative Cost Approach,” Journal of Business Logistics (v.26/1, 005).