The packaging that you use matters, and more and more people all throughout the United States as well as across many places of the world as a whole, are becoming more knowledgeable and educated than ever before in the places that their plastic originates from – and where it goes after they use it to its fullest extent. From thermoformed packaging to utility box plastic, plastic is hugely prevalent in the United States, a material that we cannot fully separate ourselves from. But responsibly used plastic and plastic products such as thermoformed packaging or even safety glasses cases can have a hugely positive impact not only on our lives (and our wallets) but on the environment as a whole.
The way things are today in the United States, an upsetting amount of plastic, from thermoformed packaging to much of the retail packaging currently in use, ends up merely discarded and tossed away. After this occurs, much of these discarded plastic products will actually end up in the ocean, where they contribute significantly to pollution and often damage the marine life that lives there, as well as simply being an eyesore in general. In fact, recent data shows that there is much as one hundred and fifty million metric tons of plastic already in our oceans all throughout the entirety of the world. By the time that we reach the year of 2050, significantly less than a full decade away, it’s been projected and estimated that there could even be more tons of plastic in the ocean than there are fish and other types of marine life, a startling and horrifying though for sure. These damages have a huge financial toll as well, costing, in total, more than ten billion dollars in just one single year in the United States as well as elsewhere around the world.
And this is not the only way that plastic products such as thermoformed packaging or plastic utility storage boxes (among many other types of plastic) are disposed. With around seventy eight million tons (or even more) of plastic produced in just the time span of a single year, as much as thirty one million or more of it ends up being disposed in a manner that causes harm to the environment. Aside from the plastic that winds up in our oceans each and every year, around thirty two percent, as much as forty percent of all the plastic produced in a year will simply wind up in a landfill, where it grows and compounds over the course of time.
Fortunately, however, when it comes to packaging such as thermoformed packaging, people are becoming more and more conscious and aware of the detrimental effects that it can so often have. Because of this often newly acquired knowledge, more and more people are taking a stand against improper plastic use and disposal and choosing to shop from brands that have a low ecological footprint – or even just a determination and a plan to get there. For instance, the data shows that as many as fifty two percent of people all throughout the world as a whole are looking for products with packaging that shows that the company is striving for positive change. And as many as forty five percent of all customers and consumers have specifically bought an object over a different one from a different brand because the first object had the more environmentally friendly packaging options, allowing the customer to lessen their own environmental footprint.
The use of plastic such as thermoformed packaging is widespread throughout the United States. But using plastic in thermoformed packaging doesn’t need to be as detrimental as it is, as thermoformed packaging can typically be recycled and then repurposed and reused. Taking small steps like buying recycled packaging or items without much packaging can have a profoundly positive effect on the environment as a whole, allowing us to save and clean up areas of the world that have become immensely polluted thanks to the widespread use and improper disposal of plastic products (as well as pollution from a number of other factors). Though this will certainly not eradicate all pollution entirely, it is nothing if not a positive place to begin, a great start at tackling a huge problem.
