Reflections on the production of packaging : version 1.5
As far as the production of packaging is concerned, nowadays it often happens to find packaging with mixed materials glued together such as, for example, padded envelopes for shipments or tetrapak packages.
The problem with these packages is that they are difficult to differentiate as the materials are glued together in layers.
An improvement approach could be to use a series of mono-material packaging (excluding any inks) one inside the other but without using glues.
For example, padded envelopes for shipments could be made with an external part of paper and an internal part of bubble wrap but without glue between these two parts.
As for the envelopes with the plastic window to read the recipient, it would be sufficient to leave the hole and not put the plastic, thus making an envelope of paper only. This would make disposal easier. There are no real substantial dangers by simply leaving the hole in the envelope.
In this way we would have the exact same advantages of the current padded envelopes but with the addition of the complete separability and therefore recyclability of the materials.
The same could also be true for other types of food packaging. I believe that the use of adhesives between the various materials is not really essential to obtain a valuable packaging.
Furthermore, as regards, for example, glass containers, it must be said that if the containers were of standardized dimensions and there were no particular designs on the cap, using a gluing similar to those used for aluminum cans with labels, the labels could be completely separable and recyclable as it is made of simple paper, and possibly a returnable collection could be organized to make recycling even more efficient.
The reason behind this potential choice lies in the fact that a lot of energy is consumed to recycle a single glass package with an aluminum cap (it would be interesting to make a calculation but it is very clear that the phases of cleaning, crushing and fusion of both components are rather energy consuming) and that permitting management through the “returnable deposit” would be a further optimization.
This should also apply, for example, to medicines in glass bottles, which sometimes due to short-sighted design do not even allow the separability of the materials which could instead be achieved with a few improvements. I also happened to observe the same thing in detergent barrels, where the metal buttons are not easily removable, when perhaps even in that case it would be enough to design the package more carefully.
Personally I believe that governments should FORCE companies producing household products (food, medicines, detergents) to ensure that packaging meets certain requirements, certainly including ease of disposal.
Some examples of valid packaging that is easily disposable, in my opinion, are:
- Glass bottles with aluminum caps
- Plastic-only bottles
- Plastic-only bags
- Solid plastic containers, lined with paper, covered with an additional clear plastic bag (the outer bag is only for foods that need to be refrigerated)
- Vacuum-sealed plastic packaging with paper lining
- Cellophane-lined cardboard tray (simply enveloping), weighed at the checkout or by scanning the barcode from a sheet of paper at the checkout
- Regarding glass bottles with labels, in my opinion it would be better if they were shaped so that any paper lining in the center does not come off, either above or below.
Written by : Marco Bagnaresi
Email : contact@mbcraft.it