Paper or Plastic
Author(s): Daniel Imhoff & Roberto Carra
The deceptively simple supermarket choice echoed in the title of this timely book looms large in a Western consumer society that is clearly on a collision course with the planet's life-support systems. D
o we clearcut forests, process pulp, and bleach it with chlorine to make paper bags?
Or do we make a pact with demon hydrocarbon, refining ancient sunlight into handy plastics?
About half the total volume of America's municipal solid waste is packaging - at least 300 pounds per person each year - and the "upstream" costs in energy and resources used to make packaging are even more alarming.
In this fascinating look at the world of packaging, writer Daniel Imhoff and photographer/designer Roberto Carra give consumers, product designers, and policymakers the information we need to take steps toward a more sustainable future. They delve into the histories and life cycles of packaging materials and look at the countless ways that packaged goods shape our culture. Using case studies, they explore the positive trends that are changing packaging, including producer responsibility and "take-back" laws being enacted in Europe; the eco-design movement; plant-based plastics; labeling to disclose the ecological and social impacts of products; and producing and consuming locally and in bulk versus the wasteful global exchange of single-serving containers. Carra's remarkable color photographs illustrate both the important functions of packaging and its many unintended consequences around the globe. Despite recent advances, the packaging problem keeps growing, Imhoff warns. Real solutions must incorporate new (or rediscovered) ways of producing, distributing, packaging, consuming, reusing, and reprocessing products and materials. As consumers, there's much we can do, and Paper or Plastic? offers a checklist for consumer action, along with resources for information on products, programs, and policy options.
It's one book that is truly worth the recycled paper it's printed on.
Product Information
Daniel Imhoff is the Executive Director of Watershed Media, a nonprofit communications agency located in Northern California. He and photographer/designer Roberto Carra have collaborated on four previous books, including Farming with the Wild: Enhancing Biodiversity on Farms and Ranches (Sierra Club Books, 2003).
Foreword: The Right Stuff: Reenvisioning Waste and Our Future, by Randy Hayes 1 THE PACKAGING LANDSCAPE The Package Is the Product Wading Upstream in the Waste Stream In Packages We Trust Does Packaging Waste Equal Food? Intrinsic Environmental Consequences of Trade-Related Transport, by Jerry Mander and Simon Retallack Acceptable Levels of Waste Curbside Confessionals Tracking a Package's Footsteps In Search of Water from a Deeper Well A World of Less Bad Solutions? Can Packaging Have a Meaningful Life? 2 THE SEARCH FOR SOLUTIONS Major Obstacles Preventing Packaging Reform Key Leverage Points and Trends Toward Packaging Reform Extended Producer Responsibility and Take-Back Laws Source Reduction: Packing More with Less Natural Systems Design: Thinking Like a Coconut Packaging Tips from the Porcupine Fish, by Janine Benyus and Dayna Baumeister Wood Reduction: Packaging and the Fate of the Forests Third-Party Certification Organizations and Ecolabels The Rise of the Mini-Mill The Carbohydrate Economy: On the Trail of Bioplastics The Global Revival of Local Economies 3 A FUTURE BEYOND THE BOX What You Can Do Wraps at a Glance Beyond-the-Box Packaging Solutions Appendix A: Packaging Practices Checklist Appendix B: Tips on Green Packaging Appendix C: Resources Notes Selected Bibliography About the Author and Contributors Photo Credits Index
General Fields
- :
- : Sierra Club Books
- : Sierra Club Books
- : 0.371
- : 01 May 2005
- : 203mm X 229mm X 12mm
- : United States
- : books
Special Fields
- : Daniel Imhoff & Roberto Carra
- : Paperback
- : 405
- : 688.8
- : 168
- : 30 colour & 30 duotone photographs
