It is a little interesting how things are packaged these days. Even now, I find that the way shopping happens is strange. As you stroll through the store looking to get groceries (or treats, in this article’s instance), do you ever stop to consider how much plastic our food is housed in? Bags of noodles are in plastic. Almost all frozen foods are in a plastic bag within a cardboard box. All of this plastic is simply everywhere and all around.
Plastic, unfortunately, reigns supreme in packaging so much of our food, even though it’s quite toxic for the environment and can take anywhere from 450 to 1000 years to decompose. That’s almost 1800 to 4000 times longer than it takes cardboard to decompose, people. Wow, that means that it is a much more difficult product to get rid of and yet we tend to trash a vast majority of it in the ground and not recycle it.
This goes for all the small things in your life. Ponder on how you can help make differences as well. The next time you’re walking down the candy aisle, as we’ve finally come to focus on, take a close look at all the candies in plastic and those in cardboard. It’s really quite crazy how much plastic we actually use, especially in that one aisle alone! Imagine how much other plastic packaging you’d find in every other aisle of the store, though. It is a big switch up and it can help your persective.
So why am I going about saying that candy boxes are, by far, much more useful overall than bags? When you think about it, though, we see bags far more often at stores, though. Plastic reigns supreme in the packaging of candy unless you’re at the theater looking to get your licorice fix. It hurts to see and I want to work on making a change.
Is there really a true need for all of this plastic thought? Why is this, though? Why is it that plastic bags are far more common than cardboard candy boxes? And why is it that, half the time, the small cardboard boxes have plastic bags of candy within them? It simply is annoying that the FDA puts these rules together just to let us taste and eat plastic too.
Part of it is likely freshness. A sealed plastic bag is guaranteed to keep candies fresh. And while sugary candies are likely much better off at staying “fresh” for longer than chocolates, the whole point is to have an extremely long shelf life. The thing is, plastic isn’t very environmentally friendly. So if you make your own candies are confectionaries, think about popping your treats in cardboard boxes for your customers. They’re more sustainable, typically have dividers within so that you can include different candies in different compartments, and they’re classier with a touch of uniqueness in the face of all the plastic we see daily. I believe that there has to be another way for all of this.
We must find another change. No matter which you opt for, though, consider the environmental impact you’re making by choosing not to go with plastic. Your customers can feel much better about being able to recycle something more natural than plastic, to boot.
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