A reader addresses energy consumption:
I don’t have the numbers at hand, but my sense is that we waste a huge amount of energy heating and cooling homes and buildings, and on transportation. I’m building a Passive House. It’ll use roughly one-tenth of what a new code-built home uses for energy per square foot. Think of the huge amount of energy that goes into making disposed-of plastic bottles and packaging, each year. I think a rigorous survey of energy usage would show gross inefficiencies just about everywhere.
Your mention of packaging disposal reminds me of the European Union and some vague memories I have of the EU’s approach to this problem. I found a possibly out of date answer here:
Unlike the US, where the Federal government has an advisory role in matters relating to nonhazardous solid wastes and the states have a patchwork of disposal laws, the EU has taken a more direct and active role in regulating the disposal of packaging wastes.
The EU packaging directive implements extended producer responsibility principles, which place the burden for mitigating post-consumer impacts of packaging waste on manufacturers. This is done by imposing a surcharge or fee on specified products, requiring manufacturers to participate in product recycling or material recovery programs, or both. …
National legislation and regulations implemented pursuant to the Directive also were to impose packaging design, composition, and manufacturing requirements limiting packaging volume and weight to the minimum amount necessary to maintain an adequate level of safety and hygiene for the packaged product and the consumer.
Likewise, packaging was to be designed to permit its reuse or recycling or to decrease its environmental impact when disposed while minimizing the presence of noxious and other hazardous substances as a constituent or component of the package.
National implementation of the Directive varies, but packaging manufacturers generally have borne the costs of implementation and compliance.
EuroStat has coverage through 2012:
In 2012, 156.8 kg of packaging waste was generated per inhabitant in the EU-28. This quantity varied between 45.0 kg per inhabitant in Bulgaria and 206.2 kg per inhabitant in Germany (Figure 10). Figure 1 shows that paper and cardboard, glass, plastics, wood and metals are, in that order, the most common types of packaging waste in the EU Member States. All other materials represent less than 0.5 % of the total volume of packaging waste generated.
Packaging waste in my book is an externality, and the EU seems to treat it that way by making it the responsibility of the manufacturer to cover the cost of recycling it. How about the United States? Ignoring significant questions concerning methodology, categorization, and completeness, this EPA report from, happily, 2012 says the following:
The breakdown of MSW [Municipal Solid Waste] generated in 2012 by product category is shown in Figure 8. Containers and packaging made up the largest portion of MSW generated: 30 percent, or over 75 million tons.
With a population of 314 million, this suggests about 478 lbs of packaging waste per capita, or 216 kg. Recall that the EU figure is 156.8 kg. Of course, direct comparisons ignore questions of affluence and other factors not related to the EU Packaging Directive, so one must be cautious or ask a scientist in the field to estimate the true influence of the Directive on the waste stream. And then there’s the question of whether the mass per capita is a good proxy for energy usage for packaging, or is there possibly an inverse correlation between energy use and packaging mass? And, if so, is it worth the extra energy to reduce the waste stream?
With regard to analyzing energy usage, Greener Package reports this is already in process with regard to packaging:
In response to climate change pressure, leading retailers and consumer packaged goods companies are placing more emphasis on their supply chain to manage carbon. Wal-Mart, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, and many other companies have established formal plans to query their respective supply chain partners on energy consumption and associated carbon emissions and, in some instances, use those results as a metric for purchasing decisions. So to stay competitive, packaging organizations are wise to more deeply analyze their energy usage, develop a sustainability strategy, and implement optimization activities.
