I’m just getting the feel for this new website so this is a bit of an experiment- sorry it it’s a little off topic!

I had some packaging thoughts today that I thought might be relevant eventually. Years ago I worked on a campaign- I think it was in 1996? 1990? In any case it was called the Oregon Recycling Act. If failed- barely. One thing it would have done was to create standards of recyclability for packaging. At the time packaging was getting a little out of control, to say the least. It’s still pretty bad- maybe we’ve gotten used to it!

Excessive packaging is a huge environmental problem. Sometimes the volume of the packaging is actually *greater* than the volume of the thing that you are actually *purchasing*!! That drives me crazy!! Not very many people actually make their purchasing decisions based on how LITTLE the item is packaged or how much of the packaging is recyclable- I wish they would. Fewer yet would actually write a company and complain about the packaging! I have!!

One of the things that has had me going lately is the use of styrofoam meat trays. You can’t buy very much meat at, say, Fred Meyer without getting a meat tray that has no place to go but the landfill. Are there alternatives? New Seasons doesn’t use meat trays! Either does the meat market on Division- what is it called? The something Steer? Maybe this is a bad example to start with, but it does illustrate a point. What alternatives are there? What did they do before the styrofoam meat tray was invented? You picked out your meat and they wrapped it in paper! Viola!!

The examples from today:

Oatmeal cartons. The cartons are generally round paper cartons with a lid. The tight-fitting lids are now a plastic ring with a paper insert. You can recycle the carton, but you have to throw the mixed-material lid away. What did they use to do? The entire lid was paper- crimped to make a top that slid on! Was this good enough? It was 100 recyclable- no waste at all! But no- they had to change to force us to throw *something* in the landfill!

I won’t get into the juice cartons this time… OK.

French bread wrappers: another example from today- why do you really need a plastic “window” to see the bread? Can you recycle the bag as paper if it’s 25% plastic? I don’t know- so I usually throw it away. When it doubt, throw it out!

Newspapers used to get shoved into paper boxes- now they are always bagged. You can recycle the bag, but what’s the point!! Is this an improvement?

I think in a lot of cases, we’d be better off if we went back to the way things used to be done- and the way things used to be packaged. These few examples from today are just a few of the reasons why we have a huge waste problem in the US and in the world. So what do we do?

I would like to suggest that when it comes to product selection, we include packaging in the criteria when selecting products that we sell. I know it’s a ways down the road- but it doesn’t hurt to start thinking about it now! And this will give me a chance to practice writing articles for this great new blog!!

I hope you’re all doing well!

Jeff