When Costco tried to reduce its use of plastics earlier this year by putting its popular rotisserie chicken in a thin bag instead of a bulkier clam shell, some chicken lovers were unhappy.
The bags were leaking, they said, and were in danger of making a greasy mess. Their edges were prone to opening. “Chicken juice spilled all over the trunk of our car!” one person he complained on Reddit.
It was another chapter in the packaging wars.
There is broad agreement that the world needs to use less plastic. Plastic waste fills the world’s landfills and clogs rivers and streams. Recycling did not continue. less than 10 percent of plastic waste is recycled. Plastic can also contain chemicals linked to cancer and other health problems.
Relaxing on plastic packaging—often used only once and then thrown away—is an obvious first step. But putting it into practice has been difficult for businesses, policymakers and buyers. Everyone has an opinion.
“You can see experiments all over the landscape with this,” said Sandra Goldmark, a sustainability expert at Columbia University’s Climate School. “Right now a lot of the experiments aren’t working that well. We haven’t really cracked that nut.”
Costco’s chicken-in-a-bag rotisserie was a classic example of a “lesser evil” solution, he said. “But the funny thing about least-bad solutions is that it tends to disappoint everyone,” he said. “It’s less plastic. There are fewer trucks on the road. But the chicken is still in a plastic bag and there’s chicken juice all over your car.”
Take a proposed New York state law that would require companies to reduce the plastic packaging they use by 50% over 12 years, requiring them to either find more sustainable options or pay a fee.
Opponents of the law pointed out that it could spell the death of another American institution: sliced cheese. The plastic-to-cheese ratio in packages of individually wrapped slices of cheese meant they would be a prime target if the law passed, they said.
“Under this bill, New Yorkers can look forward to a future where they grab unwrapped products — from cereal, to cheese, to hot dogs — from grocery store bins before they buy them and take them home,” Nelson Eusebio of the National Supermarket Association . he told the New York Post. The bill passed the Senate but has not been put up for a vote in the House.
Supporters of the bill scoffed and said there were alternatives available, such as using paper.
“It’s clear that some multi-billion dollar companies and their lobbyists are not ready for the globalized idea of separating cheese slices with wax paper,” said Judith Enck, president of the advocacy group Beyond Plastics.
Four other states — California, Colorado, Oregon and Maine — have adopted laws designed to reduce the decline in the package. States and cities are also increasingly ban on single-use plastic bags. New York State and Baltimore sued plastic manufacturers to harm public health and the environment by promoting single-use plastic.
Some companies are starting to make changes.
Last month, Amazon said it would replace its plastic air cushions, designed to protect products during shipping, with packaging made from recycled paper, a move that will avoid the use of nearly 15 billion cushions a year. Bath & Body Works recently introduced hand soap refills in cartons. In Britain, Aldi, the grocery chain, is experimenting paper bands for packing bananas instead of bags, and also sells wine in paper bottles.
Companies are also experimenting to make it easier to recycle plastics. In the UK this year, Coca-Cola, which has goal of environmentalists as a leading plastic polluter, tested plastic Sprite bottles without the stickers which can make recycling more difficult. Instead, the bottles bore an embossed logo.
“There are so many trade-offs” that make designing sustainable packaging complicated, said John Thøgersen, a green consumption expert at Aarhus University in Denmark. For example, people may assume that glass bottles are more environmentally friendly than plastic, but they are not necessarily because it may take more energy to transport heavier glass bottles.
Food waste, which is harmful to the climate, is another consideration: Yogurt sold in larger tubs requires less plastic than single-serve cups, but research has shown that people who bought tubs also tended to throw away more yogurt .
And of course, there is functionality. Some shoppers appeared to use Costco’s old rotisserie chicken package instead of a plate.
To eliminate plastic waste, companies must do one of two things, experts say: develop truly biodegradable or recyclable materials, still a work in progress, or move to reusable or refillable packaging. Costco, for example, could ask its shoppers to bring a reusable chicken container over and over again. Bulk stores that allow people to take home nuts and grains in their own containers are another example of this approach.
says Costco Chicken bags would save 17 million pounds of plastic each year. Dr. Goldmark of Columbia University said the result would be commendable.
“You don’t want to be the perfect enemy of good,” he said. However, we cannot overlook the fact that the ‘lesser evil’ may not be enough.”
