Tag Archives: trash

The Influence of Packaging on your Purchase

Recently I have become extremely aware of the packaging of different products. Water bottles, flavored water, protein powder, gum, candy, food, soda, gum, shampoo, lotions, feminine products, toothpaste etc. all wrapped up in packaging to be sold and quickly thrown away never to be seen by the consumer again.

Whether a brand chooses to use earth friendly packaging materials (ex. ENSO plastics) standard plastic, or other materials, the way the product is packaged is carefully engineered in a way to grab potential customers attention.

Does Deceiving packaging really work?

Have you ever experienced a moment in a store where the packaging of a product looks so good that you purchase it and the product well, just ends up being disappointing? I know that I have. One time I purchased a flavored water that had juicy fruits, water splashes, and a vibrant name on the packaging. When I opened the drink and took a sip, I was so disappointed. There was no fruity flavor, vibrancy, or juiciness…it wasn’t even as quenching as plain water. Since then I have not purchased the drink again.

If the product does not live up to its packaging chances are people will eventually switch to a different product or brand. But if brands can convince customers to make that one purchase, is that successful to them? If two competing brands are exactly the same but one has better packaging, does that brand win?

Another thought, can packaging ever be so good that it gains loyal customers just because of its packaging?

These are just some things to think about. Next time you’re in a store try to be aware of what you’re thinking when choosing a product(s). Let me know how much you let packaging influence your decision! I am interested to hear everyone’s thoughts on this topic.

GONE TOMORROW: The Hidden Life of Garbage

heregone The book titled GONE TOMORROW The Hidden Life of Garbage by Heather Rogers was a very informative read. This book is a follow up to the 2002 documentary, also titled Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage. Heather is a journalist and filmmaker based in Brooklyn, New York.

The United States is the world’s number one producer of garbage: we consume 30 percent of the planet’s resources and produce 30 percent of all its wastes, but we are just 4 percent of the global population. These are staggering numbers which I personally find incomprehensible. I’m guessing that this is one of the reasons why more people do not get involved in this issue. We have implemented over 5,000 recycling programs throughout the country which are more of a means to helping us feel better about the massive amounts of garbage being created. There is no real global plan for stewarding the earth, which is one reason we created the company ENSO Bottles, to address the plastic bottle pollution on the planet.

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RUBBISH! The Archaeology of Garbage, Book Review

rubbish1 The book titled Rubbish! The Archaeology of Garbage by William Rathje and Cullen Murphy was a very interesting read. Created in 1973, the archaeology of garbage was a program primarily created as an exercise in archeology for students at the University of Arizona Tucson. The most fascinating aspect of the book is the discoveries of what our garbage tells about us as a society. It was interesting the amount of detailed behavior that can be discovered by going through trash. For example, in times of product scarcity our garbage shows that we waste more of the scarce product. Another major fact Dr. Rathje’s team discovered is that our landfills are not filling up from disposable diapers which is taking up about 1% of a landfills mass.

There have been some in the PLA (corn plastics) industry who use quotes from Dr. Rathje’s book to support an argument that composting biodegradable plastics is better for the environment than landfilling them. Their argument takes some of the data out on context by looking at the hundred year old “poor” environmental designs of landfills. The printing of “RUBBISH!” was in 1991 with most data provided in the book ending in 1988. Most of the data in the book is over 20 years old. As with many things from our past we eventually discover better and more environmentally sound solutions. Yes, it is absolutely true that traditional dry-tomb landfilling is not the best solution for dealing with our garbage. As a society we have made significant improvements to the methods we use for disposing of garbage. Since the writing of the book we have implemented hundreds of recycling programs as well as the EPA requiring methane from the anaerobic biodegradation process happening in landfills to be captured and burned or used to create clean energy. The EPA in the last 5 years has also changed laws with recirculating leachate through a landfill so to accelerate biodegradation by up to 10x.

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BIODEGRADABLE PLASTIC BOTTLES CAN CREATE CLEAN ENERGY

By Del Andrus

With the domestic and world markets looking into alternative energy, it is not surprising that the use of biogas created by our landfills are emerging as an easy answer to clean energy (see bioreactor landfill). What is surprising is that this seemingly untapped resource has been available for decades, and is only now being taken serious as a mainstream source for clean energy.

With countries like England adopting a massive effort to capture and utilize methane from waste off gassing from landfills, it is another exciting development towards a green and responsible stewardship of our planet for future generations to come. Here in the US, we are looking to forge ahead in the ambitious challenge to change the way we are consuming our products and resources, and in turn how we dispose of them. There are the “old school” influences that are entrenched in “status quo”, but do not be fooled, change is here, and the scale is tipping towards a healthier way we treat our planet. We are changing mainstream things that could set a new course our children will look back and thank us for. Look at the city of San Jose, CA were this city’s vision has a goal of using 100% of the city’s electrical power from clean renewable sources.

These are exciting times where innovations like our biodegradable bottles are springing up, and alternative sources for clean power are emerging. We are excited about our involvement in this transformational process that is taking place because we can help rid a pollution problem both from a litter perspective, as well as an emission perspective. Our biodegradable plastic bottles will biodegrade to reduce plastic trash in the environment, and in the process create clean energy from the methane off gassing produced by the degrading process in a landfill. We are first and foremost an advocate of recycling; recycling should and must be the goals of everyone within the voice of our message-please choose to recycle! But with the rates of recycling as low as they have historically been in the US, we take solace in that we can still achieve a positive effect by providing clean power through our plastic PET bottle technology.