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Perception v Reality

Recently I received an e-mail from a friend telling me a story about something he had witnessed when he was a passenger in a car.

In it he revealed they'd both seen a police officer looking through a lady's trunk by the side of the road. The woman had looked really worried and my friend blurted out that the cop was searching the woman's car so she must have done something wrong.

The driver of the car looked at him puzzled and shook her head.

Her version was the cop was helping the woman find her jack because she had a flat tyre and needed help.

See the difference?

Both had a different perception of the same incident and if they had not been together the "reality" when they relayed that story would have been so very different.

Such is the perception between Glass and Plastic. Glass is much more environmentally friendly - Right?

Wrong!

Here, Narelle Chenery, the brilliant developer of all the products on this site explains why she has sourced new packaging for her range and why they will soon be in new, leaner, cleaner, greener packaging.

Her article will explain once more why perception and reality are often different.

                My Journey Of Discovery by Narelle Chenery (April 2008)

Like most of us, I have always assumed that glass was the better environmental choice for our product packaging. I assumed glass required less energy to manufacture and was less polluting than plastic, and that all plastics were toxic and leaching.

We had challenges with both our glass and plastic packaging; I
really needed to find a solution.

The pitfalls associated with our current glass packaging:

 

• Glass is very heavy and therefore very energy intensive to ship around the planet,
• Glass is brittle and can break during shipping,
• Our current glass packaging does not dispense the entire product resulting in wasted       product and frustrated customers.
  
  The pitfalls associated with some plastic packaging:
   
• Plastic can leach dangerous chemicals into the product,
• Plastic is polluting to the environment
• Plastic can contain toxic plasticicers such as PVC and pthalates.
  
  I started assessing the ecological impact of both glass and plastic packaging, using four environmental parameters:
  
  1. Energy Consumption
  2. Air Pollution
  3. Environmental Release (Waste Production)
  4. Global Warming Potential (Greenhouse Gases)
  
  
                                                     Surprisingly, Glass
  
                                        consumes nearly 3 times more energy to produce
                                               produces nearly 3 times more air pollution
                                        produces 40% more environmental waste release
                                       creates nearly 3 times more global warming gases
  
                                                                           than plastic!
  
  (The above information is summarised from the Economic Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment by Carnegie Mellon University Green Design Institute (2007). Available from: www.eiolca.net
  
  Wow! I realised glass wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.
  
  Even if no energy was involved in the transport and cleansing of returnable bottles, returnable bottles would have to be recycled about 20 times to compete with plastics.
  
  Plastic seemed to be a better solution, ecologically, but I still had concerns about the toxic leaching associated with it.
  
  An ideal solution would be to find a material had none of the pitfalls, yet all of the benefits of both glass and plastic.
  
  After researching lots of different types of packaging I found polypropylene.
  
  
                                                          Polypropylene
   
• Is manufactured from clean technologies (non-toxic)
• Does not leach harmful chemicals (no Bispenol-A, no PVC plasticisers, no Phthalates)
• Requires 30% fewer resources than other plastics
• Is extemely stable with excellent barrier properties (no leaching or outgassing)
• Is 100% recyclable
• Is lightweight (less CO2 product during transit)
• Has superior impact resistance and resilience (no product breakage during transit)
  
  Hmmm... none of the pitfalls of conventional plastic, and it offered the strength and stability of glass, without the weight and large carbon footprint. My research was getting exciting!
  
  Now I just had to overcome the challenges we were having with our current glass packaging. Product wastage was a big problem.
  
  After much searching, I found this new airless (vacuum technology) packaging. Oh my goodness... could it be true?
   
• It dispenses in any position (even upside down!)
• It is leak proof
• It has no metal parts (no corrosion, 100% recyclable)
• Has a pump with automatic self-closing valves that prevents dry-out
  
  (those pesky dried product plugs in the end of your pump)
   
• No product oxidation
• No contamination
• No product wastage
• No leaking product
• No frustrated customers
  

                                                    Looks Good

                                         Mission accomplished!