This week's issue of Design Week had a section about the new Daylesford Organic milk pouches. This form of packaging is made from a completely new material called Ecolean, a plastic made from 40% calcium carbonate (chalk) with polymers used only as a binding agent. This means that at the end of the lifecycle the calcium carbonate can be separated again and the binding agent turned into water vapour and carbon dioxide after complete dergradation i.e. after incineration.This got me thinking about other forms of packaging. I am working part-time in retail at the moment and the amount of plastic and waste created by the store could surely be reduced. I was looking at ways this could be done and I saw Tom Dixon's polo designs for Lacoste.
The packaging was designed to show awareness of environmental issues. However, I feel this is more aesthetic than practical. When an item of clothing enters the store it is pre-packed in plastic, unpacked, sold and then put into a plastic bag to be taken away. This doesn't make sense. I understand that the pre-pack protects the clothing but surely there could be another way? Plastic bags are used in high street retail but what is the reason? image? to prevent water damage?
I was thinking what if the clothing was packaged in another way, perhaps in an aluminium can so that it is protected from damage and cuts out any need for plastic. All aluminium and steel cans are recyclable and can be recycled an infinite number of times without loss of essential properties. The can could then be placed in a paper bag that can be fully recycled.
2 comments:
It's really interesting you've mentioned this as I watched a programme presented by the creator of Lush - the beauty and body products shop that sells everything unwrapped, which considered the amount of plastics and other unrecycable materials used to package things far beyond what is neccessary. This is a really interesting area of design and one that will be come increasingly importance whilst we are working as designers. The April issue of CR was dedicated to being 'greener' if you didnt read it - there was a lot of information regarding how to design in a greener way,
It's becoming increasingly more fashionable to create 'environmentally friendly' packaging etc It makes you wonder whether some comapnies maybe aren't doing these things for the right reason and just doing it to follow a trend. Nevertheless I think its a strong and relevant issue that will definately need to be sorted in the future.
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