"Waste of Packaging" Contest: Sneak Peek
by Sean Fisher, Cincinnati, Ohio on 02.14.06
It is difficult for those of us with a sweet tooth to admit fault with the source of our sugary pleasures. Often times, we are able to easily look past the piles of plastic that a good candy binge leaves behind. However, Ryan De Baker's entry in our "Waste of Packaging" Contest reminds us that even seemingly small amounts of packaging can add up. Ryan's "waste of packaging" entry was something that has been on his mind for a long time (and I am sure a few of yours as well), the fruit candy Mambas. If you are unfamiliar with Mambas, here is deal, "It starts by coming in boxes of 24 that is of course shrink wrapped (nothing out of the ordinary). Then, each mamba package of 18 fruit chews is wrapped in plastic. Inside that outer wrapper you get 3 main flavors each in it's own wrapper. Each of these contain 6 fruit chews are again individually
wrapped."
This is an awful lot of packaging for such a small candy, and in particular a lot of plastic. So what does Ryan propose? "Avoid wrapping and re-wrapping the candy in any further layers or at most a paper tray that can be recycled to hold the candy within the outer wrapper. I bet you would reduce the waste in that package by over
half or 2/3rds not to mention not using more plastic." Thanks for your entry Ryan! If you find something you feel is a "waste of packaging", let us know and you could come away with a $250 gift certificate from our friends at re:modern. Just send a picture, description and solution to the packaging to: contest [at] treehugger [dot] com by Monday, February 20th for your chance to win!
in vietnam, they wrap candies in an edible wrapping -- rice paper, maybe. in any case, it does the job of keeping the individual candies separate while not adding to the waste problem.
note: i don't think conservation was the impetus for this design. tradition, more likely. but no reason we can't leverage the idea anyway.
the problem with edible wrapping is cleanliness.. the epa would never allow the thing to keep something inside clean to be eaten
There's not much difference between Mamba and Starburst. Or for that matter the individually wrapped mini Mars or Snickers or all the other sugary crap kids get during Halloween. Hell, Halloween is should have been nominated!
Ok, here's my official entry: the entire Mars Corporation and all the other chocolate and candy makers that individually wrap each piece of chocolate or candy and then sell it inside a large package.