Page 52 - Fall2020

plastic packaging materials make them key enablers of these global ate global food chains that enable us to enjoy
supply chains stretching across the continent and the globe. If all of the seasonal fruits year-round. There’s a reason why
electronics purchased from Asia arrived at your doorstep cracked and your grandparents were not able to enjoy Chil-
smashed, it is unlikely that you would continue to buy televisions from ean blueberries in the dead of winter, but you
Japan and tennis shoes from Vietnam. How often do we care that the can enjoy these out-of-season treats. Whether or
packaging that our precious device arrives in looks as though it has been not you personally agree with global food supply
through a trash compacter? It is typically made of cheap materials that chains, the reality is that plastic packaging al-
are going to be thrown away anyway. They are, by design, discardable. lows us to move food effectively from locations
In food packaging, the benefit of ultra-thin but impermeable plastic of surplus to areas of scarcity year-round.
packaging has to do with preventing food waste. It so happens that plastic
presents an excellent barrier to “oxygen ingress,” the key process that PLASTICS AND THE ENVIRONMENT
causes food to rot. Consider, for example, a cucumber: wrapping the Before we demonize the use of plastics, we
lonely cucumber in a thin sheet of plastic wrap extends the shelf life from need to ask what we used for food and gadget
days to weeks. Some studies estimate that plastic packaging reduces the packaging in the pre-plastics era. The answer
amount of food waste that occurs from the farm to your table by over 25 is glass, tin or steel and wood (as paper or
percent. cardboard, which are still widely used today).
A key side effect of our plastic-encased world is the ability to cre- Plastic production may be energy-intensive, but
it is only about half as energy-intensive as the
readily available alternatives. And since plastic
Figure 2: Effect of substitution of selected plastic packaging on provides the same strength properties at a much
masses, energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions.
lower weight, it substantially reduces the energy
cost of moving goods around the world. To put
this in analytical terms, see Figure 2, a compari-
son of plastic to its packaging alternatives by
the Danish consulting firm Denkstatt. Plastics,
even with no degree of recycling, result in a sub-
stantial reduction in greenhouse gas emissions
and energy consumption when compared to the
current technologically available alternatives.
Another paradox: despite sixty years of
population, economic and consumption growth,
the amount of landfill waste in the developed
world is on the decline. Figure 3, provided by the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, shows
that the combination of recycling and using
lighter-weight packaging materials is shrinking
Figure 3: Containers and packaging waste management: 1960-2017 our environmental footprint in absolute terms,

despite all the other variables that should result
in waste being on the rise. The major reason for
this is the substitution of plastic for glass, tin,
steel and wood.

THE PLASTIC PATCH
In spite of the fact that plastic usage is
resulting in less waste both in absolute and per
capita terms, there is a constant stream of news
articles lamenting the evils of plastic usage and
highlighting the “plastic patches” growing in the
middle of our oceans.
The main reason we have these plastic
patches in the oceans is that the landfilling
50 Wise Traditions FALL 2020