Excessive Product Packaging
A.
- How a product is packaged is critical to what it stands for and how well it sells
- Over packaged products incur a hefty toll on the environment as product packaging is usually discarded quickly, ending up in landfills
- The emphasis on sustainable development and living elicits improvements in every aspect of product development, including packaging
- Extravagant packaging has become so prevalent in developed countries that unwrapping three layers of plastic and paper to eat a piece of chocolate is a regular practice, not warranting any further thought
- Excessive packaging necessitates more materials, more resources to manufacture, so entailing more costs
- Reducing the amount of packaging, which reduces CO2 emission as less power and fuel are used for production and transportation, is conceptually critical in taking the first step towards a sustainable circular economy
- Committing fully towards green consumerism requires comprehensive government support
- In one of the ‘greenest’ consumer societies on earth, Japan, stiff penalties, surcharges and taxes coerce producers and consumers to pay careful attention to the amount of packaging produced and disposed
- The current economic climate should elicit rethinking of the conventional; product packaging is no exception
- For manufacturers and brand owners, besides complying with legal requirements, they have to cater to consumers’ demands
- There are concerns that environmentally friendly materials are more expensive, such concerns however can be countered with the clever utilisation (and minimisation) of materials
- The emphasis should be placed on creative and simplified use of materials
- The packaging industry, acting as suppliers for manufacturers, operates in competitive markets on tight schedules and profit margins; simple yet elegant packaging solutions minimise production time and costs
B. As stating in the very beginning of this article, a product's packaging is critical to what it stands for and how well it sells. However, that concepts seems kind of irrational considering that the packaging usually ends up getting thrown away and ends up in landfills. There are many problems to excessive packaging. For example, excessive packaging requires more materials as well as more resources to manufacture meaning that the cost goes up. Keep in mind that all of this is just for that packaging of the product. The actual product also has a cost of manufacturing added onto the packaging. There are some countries like Japan and China that have laws and regulations regarding packaging and these laws are crucial for seeing the framework in which green consumerism can occur. If we are able to reduce the amount of packaging, we can also reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emissions because less power and fuel is being used to transport as well as to dispose of. Packaging should be more easier to use so that they do not have to be disposed of right after the product is opened. Consumers are starting to become more aware of this problem and are making retailers work on better packaging.
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C. After reading this article, I really begun to realize how unnecessary some products packaging is. For example, in some products that I purchase have all kinds of extra pieces of plastic and it just seems unnecessary. Keeping in mind that this is just the packaging and not the actual product itself, I believe that it is very ridiculous that so much time and effort goes into something that will eventually be thrown away and act as extra pollution. In a way, I do see why certain products need extra packaging for protection or sanitary purposes but I am starting to notice that there are also some products that really do not need that much packaging and I feel that we should heavily reduce. I like the idea of having more user-friendly packaging that doesn't have to be destroyed or thrown away, packaging with an alternate purpose than just to be part of a landfill
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