Our radar is on packaging now. And on an increasing empathy with our natural environment to harm as less as possible. More precisely, we’d like to shed light today on reusable packaging taking into account how many takeaway and home deliveries we are consuming in this mid-pandemic situation.
The 2019 numbers speak for themselves:
Until single-used plastics are not banned, we will need to seek alternatives to keep the packaging balance in check. London-based design studio PriestmanGoode developed as part of an exhibition at London’s Design Museum titled Get Onboard, a collection for the cabin service. The idea is to rethink the amount of waste we produce when traveling for leisure or business during the catering only. Sandwiches come in plastic, so do water cups and spoons, and basically anything that carries food and beverage. Long-haul flights are the biggest waste-producers with 500 grams of single-use plastic per person. If you do the math per flight, daily flights, and annual flight, you come to the conclusion that meal services need to be redefined and we have to consider as end consumers the impact of collective waste, too.
The materials that are used come partly from by-waste products such as coffee grounds and husks mixed with a lignin binder and the base container is made from wheat bran. Furthermore, the spork is made from coconut wood while the cup is composed of rice husk mixed with a polylactic acid binder, with a cup liner made from algae. The small food and beverage containers are made from soluble seaweed.
The idea of reusable packaging in the form of a refillable water bottle made from cork came to life after Heathrow Airport announced that it could reduce its plastic bottle consumption by 35 million a year if passengers at the departures lounges refilled their bottles again from water fountains provided inside the terminals instead of buying a new plastic bottle.
