Earth Day 2024: The Planet Needs Sustainable Packaging Options Now
Earth Day, celebrated each year on April 22, is a reminder of our collective responsibility to protect the planet through environmental conservation and sustainability. It also highlights the critical need for brands to move to more sustainable packaging solutions and for consumers to prioritize purchasing more sustainably packaged products.
According to Earthday.org, the first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970 and, since then, has evolved into the largest civic event on Earth, “activating billions across 192 countries to safeguard our planet and fight for a brighter future.”
The global theme of Earth Day 2024 is “Planet vs. Plastics,” which calls for a plastic-free planet and demands a 60% reduction in the production of plastics by 2040.
Source: Earthday.org
Plastic packaging and other types of product packaging are an environmentally damaging problem, making up a major portion of municipal solid waste (MSW). According to the most recent data available from the EPA, containers and packaging amount to 82.2 million tons of MSW generation – 28.1% of total generation.
While packaging is an essential component for protecting food products, it doesn’t have to be so damaging to the environment to get the job done. There are innovative, sustainable packaging solutions that can reduce the environmental impact of packaging and meet growing consumer demand for more eco-friendly products.
The software designed EEASY Lid is one of these innovative solutions. Made of lightweight, strong, durable, and infinitely recyclable aluminum, the EEASY Lid is a packaging solution designed to help the food packaging industry reduce its carbon footprint and promote a more sustainable future. Recyclable packaging solutions like the EEASY Lid can be diverted from the waste stream and used to create new items. And because it is lightweight, the EEASY Lid makes shipping more efficient, saving on the fuel needed for transport and reducing harmful carbon emissions. These sustainable attributes are good for the Earth, good for brands and good for consumers.
On Earth Day and every day, eco-friendly packaging solutions like the EEASY Lid are an imperative to help protect the planet and should be the packaging standard on store shelves. Brands can do their part to protect the earth and mitigate the environmental crisis by adopting sustainable packaging solutions. Consumers can also do their part in protecting the environment by using their purchasing power to select products in sustainable packaging.
American novelist, poet, essayist, and environmental activist Wendell Berry said: “The Earth is what we all have in common.”
Let’s make protecting the planet we call home something else we all have in common.