The solution to the environmental crisis? Cardboard instead of plastic

If you’re anything like me, you might want to improve the packaging. You can bring a cloth bag when you come to the supermarket for shopping or a metal bottle when you go to work.

You can also bring your own reusable coffee cup to a local cafe and ask them to refill it, which you can also get a discount on.

You’re not alone as 75% of people in the UK, US and Australia make at least some effort to use disposables. Plastic Limit reliance on

This is a good thing because if we look at current trends, by 2060 the world will be plastic Garbage It will almost triple.

As 36% of all plastic produced is used in packaging, better packaging choices can make a real impact in tackling it.

But there are inevitable difficulties in this too. What if I leave my bottle at home?

I will buy a new one and add to the corporate gifts that already fill my kitchen cupboard.

So I’m more likely to choose a disposable plastic bottle, committing to recycling.

Sadly, I know that this (recycling) has little impact compared to the overall carbon footprint of making that bottle in the first place.

This is not just a minor inconvenience to me, but a major obstacle to how we all reduce plastics and their associated carbon emissions.

A recent report by the Allen MacArthur Foundation (EMF) calls for fundamentally new approaches to reusable packaging in food and personal hygiene products.

The new approach involves multiple businesses sharing a standard and reusable packaging that can be distributed centrally after cleaning.

A man picks recyclables from a garbage dump in Karachi on May 14, 2018. (AFP)

So I can pick up a glass bottle from a cafe and drop it off at a restaurant for lunch and that way it’s back in the system.

However, this may not be the most effective solution for reducing carbon emissions.

While the Allen MacArthur Foundation estimates that reusable bottles will emit 69 percent less greenhouse gas emissions than single-use bottles over a thousand times, replacing single-use plastic with single-use cartons. Doing is more effective.

A 2020 study found that single-use paperboard cartons for one liter of milk contribute 82 percent less carbon emissions than plastic bottles.

This is just a rough comparison but it shows that reusable packaging is not the only solution to the problem of plastic emissions.

Even cartons may not be completely plastic-free (cartons use a small amount of plastic as a protective barrier layer), but they still contribute far less carbon emissions than plastic bottles. And most are made of wood fibers.

It is a renewable resource that can help protect, plant and maintain forests.

Meanwhile, the infrastructure required for widespread use of reusable products is also a serious challenge, especially in the developing world where large amounts of plastic waste are generated.

In 2022, India tried to ban some plastic items outright, but since then the volume of plastic waste there has increased, partly due to a lack of viable alternatives.

Given the magnitude and urgency of the plastic crisis, we need to find solutions that can be easily scaled up based on consumer behavior and trends.

Although not yet as widespread as in the UK, 75% of milk packaging and 59% of juice packaging in the EU have moved to cartons. Now there is evidence that they can also be used for household and personal belongings.

Garbage of used plastic bags in Lahore on July 31, 2019 (Arif Ali/AFP)

In a 2023 study by Alopec, more than half of shoppers in the UK and Germany said they would be happy to buy products such as laundry detergent and hand soap in carton packaging.

Companies must play their part to make this change in consumer behavior more attractive.

Sainsbury’s in the UK and Orkla in the Scandinavian countries are already doing so, offering pre-fill laundry products in cartons from 2023 and 2021 respectively.

Through which users can do a constant dispenser top-up at home instead of buying a new plastic container every time.

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It’s a very attractive proposition and according to a study by Elopec, 74% of UK buyers would happily opt for this model.

It is just a part of convention and marketing that we have to buy soap or surface cleaners in plastic bottles.

Letting go of plastic addiction in our society means questioning where we actually need it.

That doesn’t mean I’ll throw away the reusable water bottles I collect.

But aside from when I need a sweet drink at the airport or my wife says we’re out of washing up liquid.

So it would be good not to pick up another plastic bottle and instead opt for low carbon cartons readily available on the shelf.

There is nothing we cannot do. One million plastic bottles are bought every minute around the world, the majority of which ends up in the garbage.

Replacing them with either cartons or reusable packaging will significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

With cartons in particular, we can more easily create a world where plastic bottles are rare in our shops and homes.

Tomas Carmendi is the CEO of Alopec, a global supplier of carton-based packaging.

Note: This article is based on the personal opinion of the columnist, with which Independent Urdu does not have to agree.