Pizza boxes, fast food cardboard and similar

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

On those boxes we can see greenwash in action almost in the extreme.

All those containers are marked with the recyclable logo and the imprint “recyclable” and while they are recyclable when they haven't been used the fact is that, once those containers have come into contact with foods, which is the case once they are in our hands, and thus have gotten food residue and/or fat on them, they can no longer be recycled.

Should they end up thrown into a bin for recycled paper and card the entire contents therein is considered contaminated and is sent to landfill as it cannot be used in the production of new paper or cardboard.

This is about the same kind of greenwash that we are faced with with regards to the so-called compostable plastic bags, disposable cutlery and such. While the latter may be compostable they are not in a general composting environment but only in commercial hot composting plants.

So, if the consumer believes the message on the boxes he or she will throw it into the paper and card recycling thus contaminating the entire batch which is then going to landfill instead of recycling.

At many catering establishments the same happens on a much larger scale where the staff is either unaware – or uncaring – throwing all paper and card into the paper recycling leading, again, to entire loads of paper and card to be sent to landfill instead of to where it really should be going.

The main problem is also that the message is not given out to households, as well as businesses, that even the slightest “contamination” will cause the entire batch to be not recyclable.

This does not only apply to fast food packaging. Your cardboard cake box, the “paper” bag with croissants, Danish pastries, or such from the bakers, the paper wrapper from the chips shop, and more, also are not recyclable.

When it comes to ordinary recycling of paper the fat and other residues on those items, which is seen as contamination, make this impossible but we must find a solution so that this stuff does not have to be sent to landfill.

It must be possible to even recover contaminated batches and either sort through them – manually – to recover the useable paper and card or, alternatively, have that paper and card go to a composting plant. Even, though I am no engineer, it should be possible, I would think, to take that material and pulp it for fire logs, insulation material for various applications including houses, or such.

© 2017

Britain recycles two-thirds of all packaging

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

According to report released recently by the British government the United Kingdom exceeded E.U. recycling targets last year, after nearly two thirds of all packaging produced was recycled.

The data from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Environment Agency showed that last year British businesses "contributed to the recovery" of more than seven million tonnes of packaging, of which 6.6 million tonnes were recycled.

It also calculated that recycling packaging materials resulted in around 8.9 million tonnes of CO2 emissions being avoided, equivalent to that generated by one-and-a-half million British homes each year.

"This is a really significant achievement and shows that we are making good progress on the recycling of packaging," said environment minister Jane Kennedy. "Businesses which handle packaging have a vital role to play in reducing the amount of waste we're sending to landfill and I'm pleased to see they're doing their bit."

Environment Agency chief executive Dr Paul Leinster hailed the performance as "the best year yet for the amount of packaging waste recycled", but warned that while good progress was being made the Environment Agency was still ready to take legal action against firms who failed to comply with recycling regulations.

The government's recycling targets were handed down by E.U. regulators which set minimum limits for recycling 55 per cent and recovering 60 per cent of packaging across the year.

DEFRA said Britain also met all its specific targets for different types of packaging, including exceeding the 60 per cent recycling target for paper by recycling almost 80 per cent of paper packaging. Targets for glass, metal and wood were also met, although the U.K. only just reached the minimal 22.5 per cent target for plastic packaging, recycling 23.7 per cent of the waste collected.

However, despite improvements in recycling rates some environmental groups remain convinced that not enough is being done to curb packaging levels in the first place.

A recent study from the Local Government Association found that on average 40 per cent of the packaging in a typical shopping basket could not be recycled, prompting calls from councils for the government to crackdown on excess packaging.

The councils plea for greater government action was echoed by Friends of the Earth's Michael Warhurst, who said the government should "force supermarkets to cut out waste by toughening up targets for recyclable packaging."

I am sorry to say that I just cannot believe those figures knowing that Britain has been lagging behind and still is lagging behind in recycling and such to countries such as Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands.

Will such greenwashing wash? No. Period. And it should never be attempted. But it is being tried again and again by our government(s) and also industry. Though I best not start on that or I would be digressing.

Now, why am I not buying this? Because I live in the UK and also work for the local authorities and hence I know that too much of the packaging on the market, in Britain especially, cannot be recycled because often it is a laminate of various types of materials. What this country needs is a branch of TerraCycle.

TerraCycle, with its upcycling program would be ideal to reduce a lot of that non-recyclable waste that is packaging in Britain. I mean please someone tell me what we are doing in Britain with, say, Capri Sun pouches and such? Nothing, that's what and whoever tries to tell us that they are recycling them is telling porkies.

© 2009
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Reusing Cardboard Boxes

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

In the United States alone, over 90% of all products are shipped in a cardboard box and 120 million tons of cardboard are used each year. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports that the US commercial sector generates more corrugated cardboard than any other single material. If all North American companies and consumers disposed of their cardboard by “dumping”, the resulting 457 billion square feet of trash could blanket the states of Massachusetts and New Jersey, or cover 9.5 million football, as in American football, fields!

A company called “Used Cardboard Boxes” makes, I am sure, a significant environmental impact by collecting usable, quality boxes from businesses that would otherwise discard them. The company then certifies, brands, and re-sells the very same boxes to the 43 million Americans who move each year as well as small businesses throughout the country as a low-cost, earth-friendly alternative to new boxes.

Product is ordered online or at 1-888-BOXES88 and then delivered to the consumer the next day.

Here is, I am sure, also a business opportunity for people in other countries, in the same way as there is a business opportunity in shredded paper for animal bedding and/or packaging material. In the latter case to replace bubble wrap and Styrofoam beans or such. This shredded paper would have the same effect as the old wood shavings of old. I am sure some of us still remember breakable goods that came packaged in shavings gathered from carpentry workshops and the like.

Next to disposable diapers cardboard and office paper accounts to, so I understand, the greatest amount of waste going into landfill sites. This, together with the cardboard that we generate simply by buying goods that are packed in cardboard boxes, the waste mountain is humongous.

If I understand it correct a great amount of domestic waste is just cardboard and paper and even more waste like that is generated by offices and businesses. If, from the beginning, the boxes that products come in would be designed with the second life in mind, much like that plastic box packaging that I have seen for some media center which becomes then storage unit and shelf set up for the center and the CDs, DVD, etc., we would go a very long way towards reducing the amount of cardboard that gets thrown away. Cardboard constructions can be very strong and I have seen display shelving recently on a show that was made of cardboard and just slotted together in the IKEA fashion. This could also be done with boxes, that is to say they could have cut outs designed in to make small items of shelving or such.

On a practical recycling sense this can be done at home or in the office. Not the building of shelving with them boxes but a reuse can be found for them, I am sure; or at least for many of them.

There are a number of little examples that I could cite of my own in which small cardboard packaging boxes have been “re-engineered” into boxes & trays for the desk. Often one just has to think laterally. Then again, that is something that I am rather known for.

© M Smith (Veshengro), June 2008