ConsumerismWaste Systems & Recycling

Revisiting Packaging

https://youtube.com/watch?v=8gTUhBRR8sw

I’m not sure there is a real cure against the insanity that consumerism has reached, but what I’m sure of (well, almost) is that we can be a little smarter (and conscious) in dealing with packaging the goods we don’t always need. Granted, I wish people would buy less in the first place… or at least repair, re-use, recycle, or repurpose.

It’s a global plague. Mountains of plastic bags, styrofoam and cardboard are accumulating in landfills while people continue buying more. The bad news is that it will continue. The good news is that some people are racking their brains to do something about it.

Here are two innovative ideas that principally target this phenomenon: packaging.

Let’s start form the inside out:

The first one is attacking the protective layers made of polystyrene that protect our goods (some 14 million pounds produced every year!). We all want to make sure the plasma screen we bought comes home intact, right?

Eben Bayer developed a biodegradable, renewable form of packaging that is grown rather than made. You heard me; grown! He designed an all-natural packaging system made out of mushrooms (see video at top).

Now, let’s tackle the issue of cardboard boxes. There are so many of them (thank God they are recyclable) that we no longer know what to do with them. We happily use them in our garden as mulch, to feed our worm farms, to build temporary forts for the kids, but their uses are somehow limited. Paul Stamets (I guess everyone should know him by now) reinvented cardboard boxes. He named his ingenious invention The Life Box.

The idea is fairly simple — inserting tree seeds inside each cardboard box, coupled with mycorrhizal fungi. After receiving your goods, all you need to do is to replant your cardboard and start your own forest.

3 Comments

  1. I was at spotlight the other day and they were flogging three packs of the inside cardboard bit of a roll of toilet paper

    FFS

    I have pretty much given up on the human race since

  2. Nice projects. THe first is very commercial, but i don’t care when it replaces the plastic stuff. Atleast it is one step forwarts.
    Greetings from the Netherlands.

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