Environmental regulations and considerations when designing packaging, including the reduction of weight and volume and the obligation to care for waste. However, food packaging designs are improving, becoming more informative and safer, as well as being more environmentally friendly. These are five environmental issues currently affecting packaging design. And yes, there's a lot of bad and wasteful packaging out there.
However, packaging isn't always the enemy. When it comes to protecting and dispensing food, the right packaging can dramatically reduce waste. In my work as a design strategist, I've studied the worst packaging. But I have also studied the best innovations from around the world that could have a big impact on waste if they were used more widely.
The main functions of food packaging are to protect food products from external influences and damage, to contain food and to provide consumers with nutritional and ingredient information. The various informational elements, such as product characteristics, date of manufacture and expiration, information on ingredients, nutritional information, food labeling, etc. As such, there are opportunities to complement the drawbacks of biodegradable polymers and reduce the cost of composite materials for the packaging industry. The lack of sustainable packaging materials would be harmful to the environment, as it would increase the use of persistent single-use petrochemical-based plastics.
This review focuses on the role of PLA-based packaging, as well as on the impact of food packaging waste in the near future as a result of expected global growth. By considering the environment in the design phase, you can reduce the cost of your packaging and minimize its impact on the environment. In addition, the EPA's environmentally preferred purchasing program helps federal agencies and other organizations purchase products with a lower effect on human health and the environment than other products that serve the same purpose. Packaging materials must be designed to be able to maintain the quality of food, as well as other growing demands from consumers, producers and legislative forces.
Biodegradable containers that consumers can compost in their own backyards have great appeal, but they are not appropriate for all food containers. Its use has grown to address packaging applications with advanced functions, such as active packaging and modified atmosphere packaging applications. However, one thing that packaging designers can't afford to do is ignore consumer demands for greater environmental responsibility. Almost all packaging materials (glass, metal, thermoplastic, paper and cardboard) are technically recyclable, but the economy favors easily identifiable materials, such as glass, metal, high-density polyethylene and polyethylene terephthalate.
Dealing with product packaging is a part of the consumer experience that people don't think much about. As research continues to improve food packaging, advances in this field may affect the environmental impact of packaging. The material developed was evaluated to protect against bread fungi compared to petroleum-based biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP), a common material for packaging bread. Since organic materials make up a large part of total MSW (around 25% in the case of food scraps and garden waste), composting is a valuable alternative to waste disposal.
