packaging for life

If, in other words, instead of picking goods from the shelves of their shops – as the superstores do now - then loading them into vans, they were to deliver them straight from the warehouse, not only would they cut the transport emissions caused by collection by 70 per cent, but they could also reduce their static energy consumption by some 95 percent*. Major shopping trips would, in other words, be eliminated. Local shops (which are much less dependent on cars) could remain open, but they would have to start introducing the kind of efficiency measures which apply to the rest of the economy.
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In theory, picking an eco material is better than a non-eco one. But in many cases, if you don't know why it's eco, or how to apply its use correctly, the eco material can be far worse than the thing it's replacing. A great example is PLA, a plant based plastic that can be used instead of PET/PETE (recycling number 1). If applied to products in a market that has PLA collection and sorting systems in place, it's a fantastic substrate that offers a huge list of eco-benefits. BUT -- when used in markets without proper systems in place to handle it, just a small amount of this material mixed in with PET/PETE can contaminate the entire batch -- making the plastic unsuitable for recycling. The now contaminated and unrecyclable PET/PETE in many markets is burned, adding to the pollution load caused by incinerating petroleum based plastics, as well as wasting a full batch of really good material that could have been used to make a wide variety of durable goods.


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