paper or plastic : is the plastic war a fair war ?
It is delicate to say that a war is just or not, and this one no more than another one.
We saw these last months that several companies declared war to #plastic, is it the right strategy?
As Packaging expert, we know that #plastic ban is maybe not the best solution to reduce overall #waste.
I am wondering if we understand the whole picture and if we are not superseding one issue by a bigger one.
It seems that the previous bad perception about packaging we had in the past, moved to a bad perception about plastic especially. As everybody agrees now that packaging is necessary to protect goods and #reduce food waste.
But there is a misunderstanding and confusion between the cause and the consequences. Example:
there is plastic waste in #Ocean and there is no #paper waste in the ocean. So, we have to eliminate plastic to avoid ocean litter ….
Simple, but unwise. Why there is no paper material in the ocean is a better choice to find the answer.
According to me it is more about educating people about waste, how to dispose #packaging , having the right infrastructure and develop Marine #biodegradable plastic than just eliminating #plastic.
Plastics are performant, which high barrier, preserve food and avoid #foodwaste
Plastics are light and so doesn’t impact product weight during transport compared to other materials
Plastics are easy to recycle when there is the right infrastructure
Plastics are usually affordable in term of pricing vs other materials
Plastics can be bio-sourced with renewable materials
And may other positive points…
Of course, there are also some points to consider, choice of the chemicals, source of the polymers, product shelflife , education about plastic disposal and especially ocean litter that we shouldn’t underestimate.
The choice of the packaging material has to be done in a case per case in function of the use and product it protects. It doesn’t make sense to “kill” one type of material in these communication campaigns without rational elements from a comparative study per type of use, material and product.
Shouldn’t all stakeholders focus on #education , #recycling and #reuse find new polymers instead of eliminating "plastic"?