When given a new green challenge by Ashley, I have found it a useful exercise to examine why following the given task is a good idea. This week’s green challenge is to reduce the amount of packaging I use and try to eliminate as much packaging as possible. To eliminate packaging completely is pretty much impossible, but it is certainly a worthwhile endeavor to use as little packaging as possible.
In a previous week, and with the help of our NatureMill composter, we worked to reduce the amount of food waste we produce. Besides the food that cannot be used or composted, what else is there that goes into the garbage? Some people put diapers in the garbage. Most of us have paper waste, but hopefully we are trying to recycle what we can. What is left? Packaging.
A good chunk of the packaging in our landfills is Styrofoam. 25% of our landfills are made up of Styrofoam. I am sure part of this 25% is Styrofoam coffee cups (which could generally be avoided), but part of this is the packaging that we send and receive. Everything from the Styrofoam eggshells to molded Styrofoam packaging goes straight into the garbage. This material cannot be disposed of in an eco-friendly way (that I am aware of) and should be avoided.
Besides Styrofoam, which I am learning to be evil, there are other reasons to avoid as much packaging as possible. If Styrofoam takes up 25% of the landfill, I wonder what the percentage is for all packaging waste. Even if you buy a product that uses recycled packaging and you recycle it yourself, it still takes resources to recover that material. Somebody needs to pick up the item in a carbon emitting vehicle, go through an industrial (and likely carbon emitting) process to change the item into whatever, then turn around and transport the item back out to the public. A recycled product is a way BETTER way to consume, but avoiding the waste packaging product altogether is BEST for the environment.
Avoiding packaging will always be better for the environment. I already have some ideas on great ways that we can avoid packaging further and sure I will have a list coming up in the near future. Please let me know any information you have or what you do to reduce your packaging waste in the comments area below.
