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Redress Overpackaging on the ‘Green’ Carpet
Every year we encourage guests attending the Global Good Awards to think about what they wear to the annual ceremony. After all, sustainability is at the heart of every other part of the event.
Karen Sutton, our founder, has led by example for the last three in-person awards ceremonies by making an environmental statement: not so much “who are you wearing”, more “what are you wearing”!
In previous years, Karen has worn dresses made from crisp packets and recycled paper – both created for the annual awards ceremony.
Guests have worn vintage dresses, wedding dresses, black sacks and even a jacket made from Ribena cartons. This year, we are keen to hear stories of guests’ outfit choices – perhaps something old, something preloved, something rented, or something repurposed?
Frustrated by constant deliveries with either a box far too big for the item and filled with packaging, or too much packaging generally, Karen has chosen the cost of overpackaging as the theme for her 2022 outfit; she’ll be wearing a unique, made-to-measure dress made of bubble wrap to highlight the problem of overpackaging.
The original idea for bubble wrap was to create a textured wallpaper but the concept wasn’t successful. Experiments to use it as insulation for greenhouses didn’t take off either. Instead, it became the most popular protective packaging in the world.
Karen keeps all the packaging she receives and reuses it to send our awards to overseas winners (when not making a dress!).
She says: “We are so much more aware than we were years ago. We don’t need to use plastics in packaging materials when there are so many more alternatives available now. Branding and marketing are not justifiable reasons for pointless layers of wrapping or packaging.”
Bubble Trouble
Unnecessary packaging has been on the increase since consumers have moved more to online and mail order shopping. Coupled with suppliers using more packaging to ship goods, so more bubble wrap has entered our homes.
Now, according to the charity Wrap:
- The world produces 141 million tonnes of plastic packaging a year.
- Around a third of all plastic packaging put on the global market leaks from collection systems, polluting the environment.
- Plastic production, use and disposal contributes about 1.8 billion tonnes of carbon emissions annually.
Can Bubble Wrap be Recycled?
The short answer is yes…. but it’s not straightforward.
Although a plastic, bubble wrap is defined as a plastic film in terms of recycling so unlike “hard” plastics, it can’t simply be added to your recycling bin.
Sites that recycle plastic bags can take bubble wrap but the system for recycling this material in the UK is fragmented. The most accessible soft plastics recycling points are often at supermarkets, so we encourage consumers to drop any off when they do their shopping. Wrap reports that the system is ‘under-utilised’ despite trials suggesting over the last few years that 80% of the items are now recycled. Find out more here.
The best way to avoid bubble wrap ending up in the natural environment is to reuse what you receive and switch to sustainable alternatives. Here are some environmentally friendly alternatives we have come across:
- Grass paper packaging, an alternative to traditional cardboard
- Green cell foam, an alternative to polystyrene
- Insulating packaging made from surplus sheep wool
For more information, Swiftpak has recently published this guide to sustainable packaging.
The Global Good Awards 2022 are now closed for entries.
You can see the full listing of all our 2021 winners here.
