Postal Plastic Packaging

Christmas season approaches, which means that there'll be loads of presents being shipped. This in turn means a helluva lot of plastic packaging, whether you mean to use it or not. Whether you are doing the sending or an online retailer is in charge of it.

The last quarter of the year is a time when a lot of my friends have birthdays. So this week I was again sending birthday parcels via the Indian Postal Service (#IndiaPost). I try to reuse the packaging from previous online purchases so that I don't buy waterproof plastic envelops. You can turn them inside out to cover the multiple labels of online retailers or cover them up with a larger label yourself.

REUSE of plastic delivery packaging

This time I faced another challenge at my neighborhood post office. I was sending a food item - SOKLET - a local origin chocolate bar - made of cocoa grown in Thiruvanamalai hills of Tamil Nadu. 

Now the problem according to the lady at the Speed Post counter is that of possible rat attack. Hence, they prefer three layers of packaging with one layer being a solid plastic box which will mask the food smell and prevent rat attack as the packages are transferred by train in the case of India Post/Speed Post. Here I was promoting local produce, ensuring low-emission transport and thanks to rats I had to increase the number of layers and types of plastic in the packaging. Finally I reused a plastic food delivery box inside the reused plastic envelop shown in the first image to hold the chocolate bar.

That evening I came across, the ASAPScience YouTube video on their unique way of tracking the plastic they used in a week.

These awesome guys of #AsapSCIENCE have arrived at a way to painfully highlight an individual and household's plastic waste output by literally wearing all the plastic they use in a week. And their "walk of shame" consists of going about their week wearing the SUPs they used and would have otherwise discarded.

The horror of the sheer volume of plastic "sealed air" box fillers from delivery of a camera from a shop in their town demonstrates an immediate issue. The boon of Free Delivery is actually a bane as it increases our use of SUPs (#SingleUsePlastics).

Sealed air plastic packet fillers that make delivery boxes a SUP nightmare

The ASAPScience guys' trip to the supermarket demonstrates how it is actually a SUPermarket in their neighborhood and all over the world. 

They also give the usual quick science lesson on plastic and attempt to delve into solutions to the plastic crisis by talking to Rachel Salt, author of the book The Plastic Problem which actually lists a lot of the solutions to the #SUPcrisis. Rachel is also the producer of their YouTube channel, ASAPScience, as well as having a master's Degree in Environmental Biology from the University of Guelph.
I appreciate the metrics that Rachel highlights - about the how Plastics are not the problem our consumption is. The fact of how the quality of plastics reduce with each recycling.
Also, how Replastic items sometimes have a worse environmental impact, carbon emissions & water footprint. So blindly consuming Replastic items at the same levels of SUPs is not a sustainable solution. This factoid neatly dovetails into #SDG12 - Responsible Consumption & Production.

You can listen to the full conversation on the plastic problem with Rachel on the ASAPScience podcast, Sidenote. 

Rachel recommends the 6Rs to control our individual plastic waste output: Reduce, Reuse, RETHINK, Repair, Refuse, & only finally Recycle. At present to do this we are swimming against the tide. But hopefully as more consumers become conscious and responsible consumers (SDG 12) powered by environmentally conscious movements such as 1 Million Women. The resultant demand can drive market forces to make the 6Rs, decarbonization and low-emission products and services the norm everywhere.