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Recycling Product Packaging
Nicole Williams
Buena Vista University
October 2014
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Recycling Product Packaging
It doesn’t matter where in the United States you live, it doesn’t matter what you do for a
job, or if you even work at all. Used by people of all areas, all genders, all races, and all ages; we
are surrounded by it every day and we don’t even notice how much we use, how much we throw
away, and how much room it takes up in our garbage and after that, in landfills. What we’re
talking about here is product packaging. Product packaging is what your everyday products are
contained in to keep them from getting dirty, to transport, stack, or market. This packaging can
be something as small as the wrapper on a sucker or larger, such as the box your refrigerator
came in. Even when we are trying to be healthy, you may place your fruit in a plastic bag. You
may try to be environmentally friendly by bringing your own bag to the grocery, but when you
bought those reusable bags online, did it come in a box? With packing peanuts? In a protective
plastic bag? Some packaging may be recyclable, some may not, and other times it is but we still
just toss it in the trash with everything else. Think about all the groceries you buy and all you’ve
used just today. How many of those things didn’t have packaging? We just don’t notice how
much packaging we actually use and discard daily.
In this paper we will take a look at the subject of product packaging and the recycling of
these containers. It will take a look at how much we recycle and reuse this packaging, why it is
done less often than the normal recycling of cans and plastics, if packaging is made of recyclable
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material and easy to recycle, or if there can be less packaging altogether and who is already in on
the movement to curb excessive packaging.
Reusing and recycling the things you use every day is a way to help our planet.
Everything from donating clothes, composting your food, and recycling the containers that are
able to be. This helps clear up space in landfills, reduces greenhouse gasses, creates jobs, and
protects our natural resources. Of all the thing we throw away, only about 34% is recycled. The
rest is combusted for energy or is thrown away and brought to a landfill. (EPA, 2012). Currently
in the United States, there are quite a few materials that can be recycled. These include paper,
batteries, tires, electronics, glass, and plastics labeled one through seven. These numbers classify
the type of plastic resin in the product. Even though these can all be recycled, they are not all
