Palm Oil Products | Electronics | Clothes | Fish | Fruit & Veg | Furniture | Packaging | Chuck Out Less | Plasma Screens | Organic Cotton | Chicken | McCarbon | Say it with Chemicals | Electricity | Wine

Packaging

But while some efforts have been made by suppliers to reduce packaging, the industry, worth $150 billion in the US alone, maintains that greater amounts of packaging actually prevents more waste than it creates, because it prevents goods from being damaged and subsequently discarded. As a result, it argues, consumers tend to choose products with more packaging.

Given that some of this packaging can be recycled it may seem reasonable to not give it a second thought. But much of it can’t and so ends up in landfills. And even the materials that can be recycled still require energy to do so; energy that would not have to be spent if there was no packaging. Also, although some packaging may have labels indicating that it can be recycled it doesn’t necessarily mean that your local area has facilities to do so.

The trouble is if you were to limit yourself to only eating food and buying goods with no packaging you wouldn’t get very far. So the best we can do is read the recycle labels carefully and check with local facilities to see what can be recycled. Check out www.watchyourwaste.co.uk.