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The Growing Problem with Packaging... And it’s not Plastic!
Walk around any supermarket and you will see row after row of packaging. This is all designed to exactly accommodate the pack contents, with little or no excess space available. Contrast this with the packaging in the photograph shown here. A bikini weighing 140g is packaged in a cardboard box weighing 550g, with 0.04 cubic metres of volume used. This would pack circa 50 bikinis of a similar size. This bikini needs no special protection going through the post, nor is its presentation important. Indeed, it would have fitted neatly into a similar plastic bag to that shown, simply cocooned in a bubble wrap cover.
The weight of the packaging used then falls to 40g with a 90% reduction in packaging. This simple packaging solution not only dramatically reduces the packaging waste produced by 90%, it also reduces the excessive greenhouse gas emissions required to produce the cardboard, along with the space and weight needed for transport.
If this was an isolated example of over packaging, it could be ignored, however the exponential growth of internet shopping means this overpackaging is happening all around the world, millions of times a day, as a consequence, we are:
Drowning in Cardboard
Internet shopping has doubled over the last 10 years, (as has internet packaging). Worldwide it is forecast to grow a further 30% by 2027. In the UK alone, circa 55 million people have used internet shopping, 80% of the population. Whilst various materials are used for internet packaging, cardboard boxes dominate, along with endless yard upon yard of craft paper. Why this is used rather than the lighter and more protective plastic bubble wrap is a mystery.
The negative environmental consequences of all this growing internet packaging activity is difficult to quantify. Not only are millions of extra road miles incurred every year, but equally significant is the extra packaging required for each item. Thus, the growth in the number of cardboard boxes is there for all to see. Here again, the exact figures are hard to find, but the Royal Mail estimated in 2020 around 200 million extra parcels were handled due to e-commerce, as they have a 25% market share, that’s 800 million UK parcels and growing! Worldwide paper / board packaging has grown from 215m tonne to 265m tonne over the last 10 years (23%) (Statista). This growth is forecast to continue at 4% per annum. Based on the growth of e-commerce this growth projection looks conservative, this figure seems too low as internet sales continue to grow.
The growth in the use of cardboard boxes is a worldwide phenomenon
Environmental Effect of Increasing Cardboard Demand
Worldwide we lose some 14 billion trees per year for paper / board packaging (Canopy – Google). This is allegedly equal to the CO2 output of 250 million cars. The paper / cardboard manufacturers claim that trees are replaced when ‘harvested’ therefore paper / board is a sustainable packaging material. However, it takes 30 years or more for a tree to mature to ‘harvesting’ so unless the industry anticipated the exponential growth of e-commerce around 2010 and planned 700 million extra trees to accommodate this growth (which they didn’t). Inevitably we have deforestation, with all its negative environmental effects.
The paper / board industry will similarly claim that European forests are growing. However, in truth, this growth is primarily due to carbon offset tree planting. This planting, according to the F.T (11th April 2023), some 3 billion trees have been planted to date for carbon offset.
In summary, whilst trees are being planted worldwide for carbon offset, the paper / board industry is cutting them down in ever increasing numbers. Thus, the negative environmental effects of the growth in the paper / board packaging industry, far from being sustainable, is environmentally devastating. This devastation applies even if we ignore the billions of gallons of water, and chemicals used in paper / board manufacture to process the 3 billion trees removed each year.
As each tree is a CO2 store, (6 trees store 1 tonne of carbon) cutting millions of more trees down year by year, simply adds to global warming, as the replacement saplings planted take years to absorb the CO2 stored in mature trees.
Conclusion
The growth of E-commerce worldwide is inevitable. So, what can be done to mitigate the negative effect of its packaging growth on the environment? The particular example shown was from John Lewis, but Amazon, and many supermarkets are all ahead of them in e-commerce sales. We can change these companies’ actions if we complain (with photographs) as in this case. These companies are more than capable of ensuring that the packaging used is minimised and fit for purpose. Replacing cardboard boxes with flexible plastic, which fits the product wherever possible, whilst also using bubble wrap, not paper for infill, would be another obvious first step. In addition, we have the Waste Reduction Action Programme (WRAP).
As many of the major e-commerce companies are members of their Plastic Waste Reduction Programme, they could also have a Cardboard Packaging Reduction Programme if their intention is to reduce packaging waste? Examples such as that shown would then be avoided.
One recent example is a WRAP member replacing 350 tonnes of plastic with cardboard. In doing so WRAP know this change will create circa 1,000 tonne of extra packaging waste! It will require 7,000 extra trees to be cut down and it will use tens of thousands of gallons of water and chemicals. Whilst all the while adding to climate change. As both the plastic and the cardboard are recyclable, this plastic substitution may be good PR for the brand owner but at what cost to our environment?
As ever, I welcome your views on any of the items raised and welcome you to join me on LinkedIn for more regular updates.
#DontHatePlastic
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