The World in 2030

The World in 2030 159
The trial, which involved the production of 60,000
recycled content milk bottles for commercial sale, is
the culmination of a three-year project. The project
was initiated and funded by WRAP, and is aimed at
developing a recycling process capable of producing
food grade polythene from milk bottles. The project
was delivered by Nampak Plastics, Dairy Crest, the
Fraunhofer Institute, Sorema, Erema and Nextek. 310
Packaging of all sorts (much of it plastic) is a highly emotive
issue for environmentalists. But it is hard to live in the
developed world without buying packaged products and it is
clear that much packaging is highly worthwhile (that which
protects foodstuffs, medicines, etc. from contamination and
increases shelf life). X In the less developed world up to 50
per cent of food is spoiled on its way from production to the
shelf because of a lack of packaging. 311
Meanwhile other forms of packaging (perfume,
cosmetics, etc.) have in a few cases become a perverted end
in themselves and require regulation. Certainly some forms
of packaging are simply plain daft (shrink-wrapped coconuts)
but such examples form only a small minority of the market.
As packaging production accounts for 40 per cent of the
overall plastics industry in Europe, attention must be paid
to its responsible use.
Writing in New Scientist in April 2007, Jessica Marshall
opened up the packaging industry to scrutiny.
X
The UK Cucumber Growers’ Association has produced research indicating that a shrink-wrapped cucumber
loses only 1.5 per cent of its water content after two weeks’ storage compared with 15 per
cent in an unwrapped cucumber.