There are two things that bug us about the recent packaging campaign launched by US-based environmental group, Upstream: its misleading use of data (outlined in an earlier blog) and its superficial and one-sided view of how the paper packaging industries in both Canada and the United States work. Basically what Upstream claims is that all […]
Upstream misses the boat – part 2 Read More »
There’s no question that the folks at the US-based environmental group, Upstream, have their hearts in the right place. We just wish they would get all of their facts straight. The group recently launched a wide-ranging campaign against packaging waste, including a section on what it calls paper-based “consumer” packaging. Upstream defines this as pretty
Upstream misses the boat Read More »
The average US corrugated box has registered significant environmental improvements over a four-year period, according to a life cycle analysis released today. Global warming results were 32% lower than recorded in a similar study undertaken in 2006, mainly because more old corrugated containers (OCC) were diverted from landfill (recovery increasing from 72% to 85%). Also
Great news on the corrugated life cycle front Read More »
Corrugated, of course. The gothic stone cathedral that was the centrepiece of Christchurch, New Zealand, was badly damaged in a 2011 earthquake that killed 185 people and has temporarily been replaced with a corrugated alternative. The triangular prism shape of the 700-capacity cathedral was fashioned around 98 interlocking corrugated tubes set on a concrete base. Japanese
What do a cathedral, furniture, and a bicycle have in common? Read More »
In the time it takes you to read this sentence, 169 new tree seedlings will have been planted somewhere in a commercial forest in Canada. By the time you get to the bottom of the page that number will have jumped to over 2500. On average, more than a thousand seedlings are launched on a
More than a thousand new tree seedlings are planted every minute in Canada Read More »
We were recently invited by the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) to comment on various aspects of extended producer responsibility (EPR) programs that have been, or are being introduced across the country. In the course of preparing our response, we re-read CCME’s Canada-Wide Strategy for Sustainable Packaging. While we have no problems
CCME’s false claims perpetuate packaging myths Read More »
A few months back we reported a critique of a comparative life cycle study commissioned by reusable plastic crate company, IFCO, which is trying to displace its competitor product, the corrugated box, from the fresh produce market (blog July, 2013). IFCO’s LCA was roundly criticised by our US colleagues (who are about to release their
Stepping into the minefield of life cycle analysis (LCA) Read More »
You hear it all the time from provincial and municipal politicians. “Industry” is dragging the chain on waste diversion, lagging way behind municipal efforts. This politically charged claim may be true for some waste streams, we don’t know. But there’s strong evidence that it’s certainly not true when it comes to packaging. Packaging is one
News Flash! Over 70% of packaging is being re-used or recycled, most of it by industry Read More »
There’s a pie-chart in the Ontario Ministry of Environment’s Waste Reduction Strategy document that’s been bugging us for several months now, and although we’ve tried to get an explanation from the MOE both verbally and in writing, we have received nothing to date[1]. The pie-chart is titled “Ontario’s Waste Stream” and claims that
There’s something fishy about Ontario’s packaging numbers Read More »
One of the interesting similarities between the life cycle of paper and that of the human species is that as we get older we become progressively weaker and wear out. Sorry for being the “bad news” guy today! But at some point, we need to be replaced by a fresh infusion of younger and stronger
Some really deep thoughts on the meaning of life, and paper Read More »
