【正文】 eventually turning to environmental issues. A perception: if only the packaging industry would stop doing something or, conversely, start doing something, all our landfill and pollution problems would go away. Ample evidence suggests that good packaging reduces waste. The consumer sees packaging as that part of shopping trip that gets thrown away. Hence, packaging is garbage. Waste Management and Environmental Issues percentage of waste that is packaging The University of Tennessee provides the following breakdown of total landfill waste Residential waste: % Industrial waste: % Commercial waste: % Other sources: % Waste Management and Environmental Issues Material Packaging Nonpackaging Paper % % Wood % Metal % % Glass % % Plastic % % Other misc. % % Food waste % Yard waste % Totals % % Table Materials mix by weight in residential solid waste 3. The materials in the waste stream Waste Management and Environmental Issues 4. Consumer perceptions of packaging North American consumers have a basic distrust of manufacturers。 every state or province can pass its own packaging regulations or mandates. In the Unites States, the states are mostly acting on their own。 Recycling mandates/laws Restrictions on selected materials/package types Bans on materials accepted as landfill (such as not accepting as corrugated fiberboard) Purchasing preference mandates Deposit laws/advance disposal fees Waste Management and Environmental Issues 7. The four Rs hierarchy and what it means Reduce: use the minimum amount of material consistent with fulfilling its basic function. Reuse: containers or packaging ponents should be reused. Recycle: packaging should be collected and the materials recycled for further use. Recover: to possibly recover other value from the waste before consigning packaging to a landfill. Waste Management and Environmental Issues Table Percent of municipal solid waste incinerated in selected countries Country Incinerated Waste Switzerland 74% Japan 66% Sweden 50% France 35% United States 15% Waste Management and Environmental Issues 8. Recycling realities The public myths: 1. Placing material in a blue box constitutes recycling. Recycling does not occur until someone uses the material collected. a) PCR materials in immediate contact with food need to be extensively investigated. b) In the instance of pharmaceutical packaging, such use is simply not allowed. c) Another impediment is a guarantee of consistent and reliable supply of the recovered material. Waste Management and Environmental Issues 2. Recycled material should be economical. In many instances, recycled material is more costly, and its use needs to be supported in some way. a) The cost of landfilling MSW is still less than recycling in most areas. b) Revenues generated from the sale of recyclable materials do not always recover collecting and recycling costs. c) The process of recycling cannot ignore market economics. Waste Management and Environmental Issues d) Environmentalists maintain that recycling is an issue of the environment, not of economics. Money expended to recycle a material represents an investment in fuel, water and other resources. When the resource investment to recover a material exceeds the value of the material recovered, then the harm to the environment is greater, not less. e) The process of collecting and regenerating a packaging material for further use is a plex one for most materials. Waste Management and Environmental Issues significant investment in sophisticated equipment. While glass is apparently readily identifiable, individual glass positions as well as different colors make it difficult to get uncontaminated feedstock. Paper fiber quality deteriorates with every recycling, and so paper cannot be recycled indefinitely. Plastic materials pose a number of serious recycling problems. The plastic industry developed a code for identifying the six most monly used packaging plastic