Is aluminium packaging sustainable
Packaging waste is one of the worst polluters and has a detrimental effect on our natural resources. Plastic is a crucial packaging material that impacts all of us, harming human health and marine life, cluttering beaches and natural areas, and filling landfills.
Although we know about plastic’s ill effects, we frequently buy packaged water or cold drinks. We find it difficult to do away with plastics because they have become so much a part of our daily lives. Utilizing sustainable alternatives is the only option to shield ourselves from the current and impending repercussions of the global climate catastrophe. Businesses must use eco-friendly packaging strategies to reduce their consumption of plastic and move closer to a circular economy. For instance, aluminium is a fantastic environmentally friendly alternative to plastic.
Aluminium Packaging for Ecological preservation
We have gradually woken up to the idea that litter from packaging with low recycling potential is bad for the environment. This has sparked a critical public discussion on the need for sustainable packaging alternatives that will help us progress toward a circular economy, in which resources are not just used once and thrown away but are continuously reused or recycled. Beverage cans made of aluminium are the ideal example of a circular packaging solution because they can be recycled indefinitely without losing any quality.
They are the ideal solution to reduce the usage of plastic because they produce significantly less carbon dioxide when compared to other kinds of packaging. The fact that almost 75% of all aluminium ever manufactured in the world is still in use today is a remarkable example of this claim.
The continuing recovery and reuse of materials with no materials wasted in the process and on economic terms that do not burden society is the essence of "real circularity," according to its most basic definition. This suggests that when it comes to recycling, all materials are properly gathered and sorted and that each product's component is carefully dissected and recycled with the least amount of material lost so that it can be utilized in another product with a similar purpose. This is "real recycling," in which materials are kept in the loop while still fulfilling their greatest economic use, preventing substantial losses, and "downcycling" into subpar products.
Pros and Cons of Aluminium Packaging
Pros
- Although aluminium normally isn't biodegradable and takes 200–500 years to degrade, it is much more recyclable than plastic and is, critically, referred to as being "endlessly recyclable."
- According to data from the Environmental Protection Agency, more than 50% of beer and soft drink cans and 35% of all aluminium packaging and foil were recycled in 2018.
- Due to its higher rate of recycling and reuse and the fact that it doesn't degrade after recycling, aluminium can be viewed as a more sustainable option than plastic.
- Aluminum is forcing companies to consider ways to use it more extensively as a component of the product rather than just as an accent.
- Although plastic is still frequently needed for aluminium bottle components like pumps, the amount of plastic used is still being significantly reduced, and sustainability can be further improved by practices like refillable.
Cons
- Due to its weight and susceptibility to denting, aluminium presents its primary packaging challenge during shipping.
- The National Centre for Biotechnology information also stated that because aluminium may bio-accumulate in water sources, it may have a significant negative impact on the health of fish and other invertebrates, which they worry may eventually disrupt terrestrial food systems.
- Additionally, if aluminium packaging is made thicker to prevent denting, it also becomes heavier, which drastically increases the cost.
- There are environmental effects associated with aluminium as well. Bauxite ore, which is used to make virgin aluminium, has detrimental social and environmental effects in some of the nations where it is mined.
Conclusion
Aluminum is a durable substance with a high economic value that can be recycled efficiently and used in multiple ways. They are superior to plastic or glass bottles since they can stand the test of time and are environmentally friendly. Aluminium cans contain the highest percentage of recyclable material of any beverage packaging (68%) which only adds to their advantages. Recycling cans is made possible by this "design for circularity" and high end-of-life economic value. If we want to transition from a linear "take-make-waste" society to a fully circular one, recycling cans should be our objective.
Change is undoubtedly on the way, despite how bad the packaging pollution situation is. Consumer demand is motivating businesses to make sustainability a core value and an obvious component of their operations. The success of enterprises in implementing "true circularity" will determine our environment and the fate of our planet.
Sustainability, however, calls for the involvement of all parties to meet the challenge and bring about a revitalizing shift to restore our ecosystem.
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