Sustainability: Give Up Plastics and Go for Compostable Packaging

By Jack Sylvester 4 years ago

Plastics are good for packaging almost anything because of their performance, cheap cost, and effectiveness. Plastics, because of its many excellent characteristics, are commonly used in all packaging worldwide to ensure the product’s safety from the manufacturer to the customer. Every plastic packaging must also meet the regulatory requirement.

However, rising households use plastics and mindlessly ordering packages from unsustainable brands, contributing to more plastic rubbish. More rubbish also means frequent collection by garbage trucks to keep the streets clean. More garbage collection needs more fuel, which then adds to environmental costs.

From childbirth to adulthood, people have always foreseen the massive impact of plastic packaging on the environment. The 2018 Coastal Clean-Up found that seven out of ten things they have collected are completely made out of plastics.

Plastics have a decisive role in reducing food waste, lack of food spoilage, and preserving perishable goods before decay. But when consumed at an unsustainable rate, it becomes a problem. There is, of course, a solution; companies like Hero Packaging encourage switching from plastics to compostable food packaging.

Environmental benefits of going green in packaging materials

Hero Packaging and other eco-friendly products are readily biodegradable and break down easily within a year. Composable elements break down into a substance that greatly benefits the soil as fertilisers. In the long run, compostable packaging doesn’t take too much space in landfills.

Switching to other alternatives like paper, glass, or metal is not enough for sustainability. It could even cause more negative effects on the environment. Recycling of plastics is not also an environmental solution since it decomposes for thousands of years. Compostable and biodegradable packaging is the right direction towards a sustainable way of storing food and carrying out parcels.

How to minimise the effect of plastic packaging on mother nature

Most food packaging or shipping packages are destined for single use only and often not recycled. Parcel packaging is usually thrown away, which ends up clogging the waterways. It is one of the primary causes of city floods and can be the home for bacteria build-ups. The United Nations declares plastic pollution as a planetary crisis. It endangers humanity while also taking a massive toll on aquatic life.

While it may be hard to find an eco-friendly brand that caters to this environmental crisis, it is best to grab the opportunity to turn your business more meaningful and adopt the compostable packaging for the sake of the people, animals, and the environment.

As an individual, here are the two best ways to minimise the effect of packaging on the environment:

Choose recyclable packaging and start recycling

To ensure the sustainability of the packaging, ensure that all materials can quickly decompose and be recycled. Be sure you are supporting an eco-friendly company. You can easily spot these companies as long as they are voicing out these points:

  • Keeping packaging waste to its minimum
  • Manufacturing their packaging from renewable sources
  • Companies that have an evident recovery or recycling system after the package is worn and used.

Support companies that are aiming to reduce their packaging

If you are looking for a way to contribute to the growing environmental crisis, get involved. Buy local and be a voice for more sustainable methods. You save money by reducing your packaging waste and building up what people need more than ever; self-reliance and a helping hand.

You may not feel the effects of plastic packaging today, but sooner or later, the environment you feel comfortable in will not be as it is before. How much more should people see to fully realise and take actions to a more sustainable way of living? People can still save our degenerating mother earth; it only takes one step at a time to make mindful day to day decisions.