Food Packaging: A Brief Overview

Photo © iStockphoto.com/littlen

So far on the blog I have just looked at the ‘food’ part of feeding seven billion; this week I thought I would briefly explore the packaging associated. Since the start of The Great Acceleration, the amount of food packaging we produce, use and throw away has dramatically increased. For example, the mass production of plastics began in the 1950’s and has since become a huge environmental issue, with up to 12.7 million tonnes, a large part being food packaging, ending up in our oceans each year. On land, only around two-thirds of food packaging is recycled. Here is an infographic to highlight some other issues related to food packaging from the Guardian:  

However, food packaging is not always a bad thing. In fact, sometimes it can be a good thing for the environment. As this Economist article explains, food packaging can extend the shelf-life of products, which results in less food waste and emissions over-all. Packaging is also essential for food safety; this article describes how it can prevent against chemical (e.g. moisture), biological (e.g. microorganisms) and physical (e.g. crushing) damage. As well as food safety, the article mentions how packaging is important in marketing, traceability and convenience. Therefore, when looking at the packaging issue, we must look at reducing its unnecessary uses and improving the materials that are used when packaging is necessary.

What do we do?

In my opinion, the problems associated with food packaging are easier to solve than those associated with food itself. This is because there is no need for a particularly personal change to be made (e.g. changing your diet to include less meat), instead changes can be made and enforced on a political level. For example, the 5p plastic bag charge has been hugely successful, reducing the amount of plastic bags we use by more than 80% in England. If the government enforced more laws similar to this, for example a tax on disposable coffee cups or introduced new sustainable technologies, the negative impacts of food packaging could be significantly reduced. As an individual, you can choose to purchase foods with less packaging, recycle, reuse and remember your canvas bags when you go shopping! Here is a fun article about someone who tried to avoid all food packaging for two weeks to give you some ideas or inspiration.

Jeffrey Hamilton/Thinkstock

I hope you enjoyed this brief look at food packaging and let me know what you think in the comments!