How often do YOU use plastic? Think of plastic bags, plastic cutlery at a picnic, soda bottles and soon. Do you ever think about the plastic soup that pollutes our beautiful oceans and about the animals that die from the large amounts of plastics they swallow? YOUR sandwich bag is also floating around somewhere in the ocean and will eventually end up on your plate again. We must change to sustainable packaging to reduce plastic soup!
The oceans are literally vital for human beings. Oceans are our main oxygen suppliers and the main food source for more than 50% of the world population. Unfortunately oceans are severely polluted; about 10 million tonnes of plastic end up in the sea each year. An alarming amount of products in-store have plastic packaging. When we change this, the plastic soup will reduce.
If we want to produce less plastic packages, there must be some available alternatives. There are plenty. For instance, you can produce biodegradable packaging from residual waste, like (ink-)fish and algae. This kind of packaging is also impenetrable for gases and fats.
Biodegradable packages have also been developed from grapefruit seeds and shrimp shells. This packaging provides a extended expiration date for the product. The grapefruit seeds and shrimp shells contain antibacterial substances which prevents bacteria on the food to development too fast. These bacteria spoil the product in the end.
We can go one step further at producing sustainable packaging. For instance, there’s the possibility of edible packaging. They are made of proteins, amongst other things. This type of packaging is the most sustainable, as you do not have any waste.
Opponents indicate that the production process and the multiple transport of these products are as much polluting as the production of plastic packages. I think we should still change to sustainable packaging. This is also a form of awareness. Also, these innovations make it possible for the production processes and transport to optimise more because of what can be learned from current developments on sustainable packaging. It is an investment in the future. The advantages certainly outweigh the disadvantages. If we would do nothing, damage would be larger in the long run.
We have to change to sustainable packaging, such as biodegradable packaging and edible packaging to reduce the vast pollution caused by the plastic soup.
Products with these kind of packages will stay impenetrable for gases and fats and provide a extended expiration date. The production processes and transport can be further optimise, in order to make the final product also more sustainable. This is a investment in the future that will already show its benefits along the way because of the awareness.