Earth is our home, and for the time being, it is our only option to call home. This sentence alone should prompt every company in the world to do whatever it takes to save our planet, including creating more environmentally friendly packaging.
In the age of Amazon and online shopping, the amount of packaging that is used, and then thrown away is astronomical. In 2020, when for a while online shopping was the safest, and sometimes only option, this number soared even higher. While thinking about this prompt, my mind repeatedly thought about the Disney movie Wall-E. I can just picture our future, robots scurrying around, trying to consolidate the trash, and humans creating more and more trash. As the packaging pollution continues to pile up, labeled from top to bottom with the logos of billion dollar companies, we get closer and closer to this “Buy N Large” animated world, becoming our reality. We will have to flee our home and our planet because life is no longer sustainable due to all of the pollution. There is only so much room on this planet, as the number of people continues to grow, the more space we need. Buildings are being built into the sky, because the space on the ground is full. The more and more packaging and trash that is not economically friendly, the more cluttered our planet, our home becomes.
The second reality is that the packaging that accumulates diminishes the quality of our air. The air we need to breathe, the air our plants need to survive to make the oxygen that we need to survive. Without oxygen, we will cease to exist. Our species has discovered how to power cars without fuel that creates noxious and deadly emissions. We have discovered how to get from our planet to another, and how to sustain life by artificial means. Each of these life changing breakthroughs have been created by the smartest, and the richest minds that our planet has ever seen. Elon Musk with TESLA and SPACEX, have redefined how we see transportation, not only locally, but gave us a glimpse at a future of interplanetary travel. Forrest Milton Bird, gave us ventilators and the ability to create artificial life. Amazon, one of the number one distribution companies in the world, is responsible for the majority percentage of packaging waste. The founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, could eliminate a third of the world’s packaging pollution by creating a more environmentally friendly packaging for the millions of packages delivered across the globe. If Amazon would set this example, many other companies would follow. This would change the world.
This is just one example of how one person can single handedly save the planet.
Angela Munoz
Chandler Gilbert Community College