You have checked whether the milk carton has an organic certification label. You have scanned the nutrition label on a can of beans to find the acceptable salt content. You have spent time looking for eggs from the hens raised on the pasture. But have you noticed whether these eggs are in cardboard boxes or in molded plastic containers? Do you know what the milk carton is made of? Have you paid attention to the lines in that jar of beans?

The irony is that although many of us spend more time and money eating the healthiest and most sustainably produced foods we can find and afford, we often overlook the packaging of these foods. Shouldn't our food packaging be as beneficial to our health and the planet as actual food? We think so.

Food Packaging Bottle problem
Disposable food packaging causes huge damage to our environment. As our landfills and waterways are increasingly blocked by plastic bags, styrofoam food containers, disposable coffee cups, etc., it is obvious that the waste and pollution left by packaging exceeds the convenience of food packaging sex. Less well-known is that the same food packaging, from additives such as phthalates, to make plastics flexible, or to make cardboard contain liquid perfluorinated chemicals, all the way to the bisphenol lining coated on our aluminum cans. , Most of our food packaging is extremely dangerous to our health.

Although it is difficult to imagine what everyday life would be like without these convenient packaging, until recently, most of them did not even exist. As our food system becomes less localized, but able to feed more people in a larger geographic area, and as the degree of food processing becomes higher and higher, packaging technology itself continues to evolve to keep up pace. Although packaging is essential for certain functions, the development of the industry has little concern for the environment or human health.

Better packaging materials and better designs mean less waste and fewer harmful chemicals-these goals can be achieved at the same time. As consumers, we have the opportunity to choose the materials that we feel most comfortable with, and ask companies and retailers to do better. We can also ask our government to set stricter packaging and plastic regulations. Most importantly, we need to reconsider food packaging and disposable food service items, so that human health and the environment take precedence over convenience.

Food packaging overview
As you walk down the aisles of the grocery store, you will find a range of packaging types on the shelves. There are canned beans, milk cartons, yogurt plastic containers, potato chip bags and plastic packaged meat on foam trays. In addition to the materials you can see (such as plastic bottles and metal cans), many food packaging also contain chemical additives or linings that you can't see, which can prevent leakage or the acid in foods such as tomatoes from corroding metal cans.

Most food packaging can be divided into four categories:

Plastic Packaging. This includes a variety of plastic types, from Styrofoam to clear plastic "clamshell" packaging, to the lid of a takeaway coffee cup. The raw materials used to make plastic packaging may be harmful to our health, or harmful chemicals may be added to the plastic to make it more functional.
Metal packaging. This includes aluminum cans and other metal cans for packaging food and beverages. Metal cans are usually lined with anti-corrosive substances, which can seep into our food and affect our health.
Paper/fiber packaging. This includes the increasingly common "tetra" packaging cartons, other types of cartons and takeaway food containers. Like other types of packaging, paper/fiber packaging is usually lined or coated with substances to make it more functional—for example, to hold liquids—which can be harmful to human health.
Glass packaging. This includes glass bottles and other containers.
The basic materials of our food packaging—whether plastic, metal, paper/fiber or glass—determine the environmental impact and ultimately determine whether it can be recycled and whether it will decompose or decompose in a landfill. Cause pollution and waste. Chemical additives and special coatings on or in different packaging types are usually where we come into contact with chemicals of concern, but in some cases, coatings and additives can also stop whether the material can be recycled.

Examples of disposable food packaging
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Food packaging is becoming an issue of increasing concern around the world, because the large amount of waste it generates and the chemicals it contains may be harmful to our health. In the next section, we will delve into the health and environmental issues of food packaging, focusing on plastic, metal and paper packaging. We pay special attention to plastic packaging because it is the most common and usually the most problematic for the environment and our health.

Plastic food packaging
Microplastics can enter the soil through floods, littering, and through atmospheric deposition

Plastic is ubiquitous in the food system and can be found at every step of the journey from our food to our plate. These plastics used to be mainly made of crude oil, but now they are increasingly made of natural gas and have become the main material due to their unique functional properties and low cost.

Since its first introduction, plastics have quickly become an important part of the US food system. Many plastic products were developed for the modern way Americans buy, prepare, and store food. We not only appreciate but also look forward to the convenience they provide.

The problem of disposable plastics
40% of plastic demand comes from disposable plastic products. Disposable (or disposable) plastics—such as iced coffee cups, lids, and straws, or your water bottle, or your cherry tomato plastic container—are designed to be used only once before being thrown away or recycled , There is no obvious reuse plan or approach.

Some disposable items are essential, they are not only convenient but also safer. A good example is plastic water bottles, one million is purchased every minute in the world. 2 In places where the water supply is unreliable or unsafe, bottled water can certainly save lives. But for many people in this country, bottled water is more for convenience, taste (or perception of taste) and our sensitivity to the claims of companies peddling bottled water: it comes from fresh mountain springs or provides unspecified Health benefits.

This is not just a plastic bottle that we use once and toss. We have begun to expect that a lot of our food will be packaged and provided to us in a single-use way, and it has reached the point where it is hard to imagine selling, transporting or eating food in another way.

Food packaging plastic pollution
Plastic packaging makes our lives more convenient, but at what price? Its durability means it will never disappear. It continues to exist in our daily lives (including in our food packaging), causing widespread pollution. So, where will they go when we finish processing plastics? Some are recycled, some are incinerated, but most end up in landfills or enter the environment as garbage.

Most plastics are not biodegradable. Instead, they break down into smaller and smaller "microplastic" fragments, which are carried by wind and water and deposited in the environment, spreading plastic pollution to all corners of the world, from the top of the French Pyrenees to the stomach of whales. We know that animals and humans are ingesting microplastic particles through the food we eat and the water we drink, but we don't yet know all the effects.

The highly visible problem of plastic pollution in our waterways and oceans has attracted worldwide attention. We are distressed by the image of marine mammals being washed to death on our shores and their stomachs clogged with plastic. There are plastic “circulations” in all major oceans in the world, including the infamous Great Pacific Garbage Belt (GPGP), which is a plastic accumulation area in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii. It is estimated to contain at least 79,000 tons of plastic floating on 1.6 million square meters. Within a kilometer of the area. Plastics have also been found deep in the ocean, including the Mariana Trench, the deepest known in the world's oceans.

Many studies on plastic pollution have focused on the marine environment. But is there any reason to worry about plastics in the soil? Recent research shows that the answer is yes. Microplastics can enter the soil through floods, littering, and through atmospheric deposition (such as wind). They can also be applied through composting or through sewage sludge, and are sometimes used as fertilizer for farmland. A recent study showed that microplastics affect the water retention capacity of soil and have other effects on soil structure.

In fact, in addition to the above problems, there are many problems caused by different plastic bottles, including 100ml Plastic Spray Bottle . Therefore, for us, we need to change not only food packaging but also all Plastic bottles have to be changed.