Green Packaging - The Coming Storm, Part 1

Posted on April 9, 2007 | Permalink

By Lane Casteix

There is a storm brewing concerning packaging. In fact, it is already a category 5 in Europe and headed for the US. The issue is pretty complicated but seems to be focused on what I will call "excessive packaging."

The charge is we are "wasting" resources in these packages that are more package than product. The software companies were once the biggest abusers; big box and not much besides a CD ROM, a warranty card, and whole lot of air inside. They are getting the message and mending their wicked ways.

With Easter just past, the focus has been on Easter egg packaging. (Nothing is sacred!) Europe is all a thither over the issue of how Easter chocolate eggs were packaged. There seems to be far more packaging than chocolate, and they have the stats to prove it!

So, the measure of "excessive" turns out to be the relationship between packaging weight and product weight. That may be fine for those who have heavy products but bad news for those who have very light or very small products that need protection.

And if you produce packaging that complies with Europe's very strict code but does not meet someone's personal idea of PC then you are not ethical? And if you have any doubts about your packaging you can get your ethiscore here.

(I'm not making this up! Check the links!)

Some of this seems so over-wrought and almost silly, but at the same time when the storm hits here it won't be silly at all. And no, I am not saying we should package products with gay abandonment of concern for the environment, but this may be taking things a bit too far, but excess in ALL things seems to be the order of the day.

This is not new. I have been watching this trend for some time now, and it is only getting bigger. Needless to say, there will be more posts on this subject....