Packaging Waste Management

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Present Scenario:
Packaging, as a strategic business tool, is the key for enhancing product characteristics and safety of the product. During last decade, packaging industry has grown exponentially. While quality improvement and better technology adoption are visible, one can also see a lot of packaging waste lying all around. Packaging waste, its collection and disposal have become an environmental challenge. Packaging waste comprise a wide range of materials that are derived from multiple items used as packaging material. Selection of appropriate waste characterization and processing technologies can tell us about the composition of waste and the action necessary to address the issues. Presently, the packaging material waste is being managed along with municipal solid waste.

Packaging and especially food packaging has considerable impact on health and environment. Styrofoam or Polystyrene (PS), Polyvinyl chrolide (PVC), Polypropylene (PP), Polyethylene Terapthalate (PET) and several others are reported to be unsafe as food and beverage packaging since polystyrene breaks down to styrene at low temperatures and often PVC has unpolymerised residual vinyl monomers in them, both of which are highly carcinogenic. All chlorinated plastics emit dioxins and furans and others benzene and ethylene oxide when incinerated besides emitting monomers like styrene, hydrogen chloride, vinyl monomers & pthlates. PET and other plastics like HDPE, LDPE and Polycarbonate having Bisphenol A leach into food and beverages even at room temperatures especially when aerated and other drinks are stored in them. Thermosets like Melamine are also known to give off acids and hydrocarbons into foods. Pigments (such as red, pink, black etc) in such packaging materials containing hexavalent Chromium, Mercury, Cadmium and Lead are carcinogenic and could harm the endocrine and neurological systems. If recycled plastics(thermoplastics) are used even in small quantities in the manufacture of food and beverages packaging, they cause major harm to human health as the contaminated recyclate can leache toxic hydrocarbons such as pesticides, fertilizers, lube oils, paints and heavy metals into the edible contents packed in them. Similarly when PVC is used for blood bags or for making dialysis units, they are known to cause toxicity in patients due to leaching of pthalates, which are plasticizers, into the blood. Similarly Poly Ethylene Glucose Saline sets are known to leache out unpolymerised hydrocarbons which could be detrimental to patients, causing allergies and lengthening their stay in hospitals.

The thermoplastics like HDPE, LDPE, PVC, PP, PS, PET or any of the thermosets are not bio-degradable. These are, sometimes, starch-filled to give the impression that they are degradable but they end up being more harmful for the environment than the non-biodegradable polymers. Plastics like Polylactic Acid (PLA) and other biopolymers made from natural starches like potato starch, oils like corn oil or palm oil are known to be completely biodegradable. PLA requires higher temperatures and specific moisture content to biodegrade. These biopolymers are expensive and are as yet not used in India on a commercial basis except in manufacture of drugs and absorbable sutures.
Fused Aluminum and plastic are used for packaging food materials. PolyAl is completely non-degradable and emits toxic fumes on burning. It could cause infertility of soil, if it gets imbedded in it, reducing permeability, porosity and fertility of the soil.
Food and Beverages packaging are high volume but may have low weights, making up only 15-20% of all packaging. They are flimsy and disposable and highly visible since they are directly disposed in the environment and are found scattered everywhere. Packaging material can be broadly classified as food and non-food packaging materials.


Recommendations:

• A study should be initiated for estimating the quantity and characteristics of each type of packaging material in the waste stream, major sources of its generation and existing disposal methods being practiced.
• A policy on packaging waste management system with the participation of all stakeholders should be developed.
• Studies on a framework for promoting clean recycling policy for packaging waste should be developed by using Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) methods.
• Guidelines/Rules should be brought out to involve large scale retailers and user industries from pharmaceuticals, processed food industries etc. in devising strategies for managing these wastes. Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) should be requested to frame standards for manufacture and use of packaging with the idea that their reuse and recycling should not be hazardous to human health and the environment.
• Plastic packaging material should be characterized and their processing recommended after proper hazard assessment as also material from other Packaging materials viz., tetra pack, paper, pharma, glass and metals.
• There is a need to prescribe standards for non-plastic packaging as well plastics.
• Quantification and characterization of non-plastic packaging waste reaching landfill should be carried out and their recycling potential should be assessed and safe technologies for the same recommended.
• A comprehensive legislation on packaging waste should be initiated.
• Handling of any post-consumer waste is an issue which has a collective responsibility for producers, consumers, regulators, policy makers and enforcement agencies. Therefore, conducting mass awareness programmes for manufacturers, consumers, regulators, policy makers and citizens would have to be initiated.
• Strategies for recovering energy by incineration of packaging waste should be discouraged and banned.
• Design safer packaging, sorting, separating, reuse, recycling and safe reprocessing should be encouraged and promoted.

(Source: Report of the Committee to Evolve Road Map on Management of Wastes in India, Ministry of Environment and Forests, New Delhi, March, 2010. Available at: http://www.environmentportal.in/files/Roadmap-Mgmt-Waste.pdf)

Industrial Waste Management India