Most of this packaging is redundant. Huge resources go into making it, but we throw it away within seconds or minutes of use. Although we know it exists for centuries, the average useful lifespan of a piece of packaging is six months, making the packaging industry the biggest producer of plastic waste in the world. All for the sake of a quick lunch, a cheap moisturiser, or an online shopping spree that will likely be returned. Our addiction has seen the total mass of single-use plastic waste increase by six million metric tons between 2019 and 2021. Never before has anything encouraged us to live in such a disposable way.

This thoughtless use of plastic packaging is taking its toll. 98% of single-use plastic items are made from fossil-fuel feedstock, and no one needs to be reminded of how the extraction of fossil fuels is impacting our lives. According to the UN, fossil-fuel plastics will make up 19% of the global carbon budget by 2040. That’s almost eight times the impact of the entire aviation industry, with 60% of this output generated by the oil and gas companies at the beginning of the plastic process. It’s a budget we can’t afford, yet one we’re intent on paying to continue living in a system of take, make, waste, repeat. Taking from a planet that’s running out of resources to give. 

This plastic stuff sticks around too. Only 9% of all plastic ever made has been effectively ‘recycled’. 40% of it ends up in the environment, where packaging is the most common type of plastic found. Everything from food wrappers to plastic bottle caps break down into microscopic particles that are coating our planet - found everywhere from the Himalayas to the poles, choking animals and infecting the air we breathe and the water we drink. Even a newborn baby’s poo has microplastics in it. The life of plastic doesn’t have a single possible ending that can balance out the impact of its creation and exponential use. We have become emotionally attached to a material that causes havoc from start to finish. 

The health implications of this toxic plastic slew have been known for decades, but with no action taken by those pumping out the plastic, we’re steadily reaching the point of no return. Scientists have been ringing the alarm bell for years now. More than 13,000 chemicals are used to make plastic - half of them never tested for human safety. Many are known endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), causing infertility at dizzying rates, as well as cancer, cognitive disorders, and auto-immune diseases. They make their way into our bodies every day, whether from direct contact with plastic, breathing contaminated air, or the plastic-wrapped food we eat. 

Continuing to use plastic packaging, despite all the reasons we know we need to stop, won’t be cheap. It’s estimated that Asia-Pacific will be spending USD 216 billion on cleaning up plastic marine debris by 2050, while there’s an estimated externality cost of USD 350 billion per year to society arising from greenhouse gas emissions, ocean pollution, and collection costs. Up to USD 120 billion worth of economic value is lost every year because 95% of plastic packs go to waste after just one use, and businesses and communities will soon be footing a USD 100 billion bill when governments require them to cover waste management. 

All of this has happened for one reason: plastic broke the system. This strong, flexible, heavily subsidised - yet toxic and indestructible - miracle material should have been reserved for very long lasting items. Instead, it’s been devalued, and its pervasive use has pushed us towards a life of convenience we’re now reluctant to surrender. Plastic packaging has enabled us to ship food around the world, eat exotic fruits in temperate climates, keep products for months without use, buy pre-prepared food on-the-go, and turbo-charge our demand on planetary resources to the point of extinction. It’s made us see waste as normal and natural, and convinced us that throwing things away is ok, because we do it multiple times a day. Despite public opinion beginning to change, and commitments emerging from governments and industry, the amount of plastic flowing into our oceans is slated to treble by 2040. And it has literally nowhere to go. 

Without drastically reducing the plastic packaging we design, without ceasing our obsession with just one material, without reimagining the way we consume, our communities are going to drown under the sheer weight of our convenient lifestyles. It’s time to rethink the packaging industry from the ground up, starting with the question - do we really need it at all?