Why should more companies adopt environmentally friendly packaging? To start, companies need to take a look at the environment as it is now; the fish that are struggling to survive in the oceans, the landfills that are overflowing, the hazardous air that is developing in some countries, and the problem that seems to be at large right now, global warming. Companies can also look at the cost efficiency of using these environmentally friendly packaging, it may be an increase in price to begin with but, once they get going these companies can re-use what they have and people may begin to recycle more.
The world is struggling, but people are not taking it as seriously as they can. Everybody knows the problems with the oceans and all the plastic, but do they know about all the chemicals that enter the ocean everyday, Huff post states, “the Gulf of Mexico suffers an even greater insult daily from the chemicals routinely carried into it by the Mississippi. Industrial agriculture is pouring reactive nitrogen and phosphorous into the oceans through every river on Earth, creating what are called “ocean dead zones”(Stone). Landfills are overflowing in many cities in the U.S. and this could decrease if companies began to use environmentally friendly packaging. Air Sea Containers blog says, “Green packaging is made from recycled waste material and requires fewer resources to produce”(Levins). These packages can be biodegradable that will not take so long to break down in these landfills.
The next thing that these companies may be able to slow down, is the bad air pollution in some countries. They may begin with a country such as India, where the air is hazardous. If companies begin to adapt the environmentally friendly packages and ship to these places, they may be able to help the companies in India with the pollution, or perhaps help guide them to go green. If the companies need another reason to adopt these eco friendly packages they can take a look at the global warming that is going on. Global warming is the rise of the planet’s temperatures, WWF mentions that, “…it is caused by increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, mainly from human activities such as burning fossil fuels, deforestation and farming”(WWF). If a major company decides to start going green, then maybe it can influence other companies to go green, and begin to decrease this list that causes global warming.
The future for packaging is the eco friendly packaging, not only is it good for the environment but it is also great for brands that are actively trying to pursue a positive image in the eyes of the consumer. The only problem with the eco packaging is the higher cost that may come with it. But if companies were to adopt the idea now and being to move it, then it would benefit them in some form, and would slowly begin to decrease in cost. This would be to the fact that the materials that would be used in the economically friendly packaging would cycle through continuously, to minimize degradation.
If a single, well known, company where to switch to economically friendly packaging, more companies would slowly begin to move toward it. This would cause all of the pollution factors to begin to decrease, and would create a better living for both humans and animals. This would also cause more people to recycle more often so that the materials can go back into the packages or items that are being made out of these materials. The world would start to become clean again and things would be better than ever.
Works Cited
Causes of Global Warming: WWF-Australia
Stone, Greg. “The Five Biggest Threats to Our Oceans.” HuffPost, HuffPost, 5 Aug. 2014
Essay by: Braden Mathew Robinson
University of Nebraska-Lincoln