Packaging That Chooses Planet Over Plastic

Some 18 billion pounds of plastic waste flows into the ocean every year. It is estimated that 5 trillion pieces of plastic are currently afloat in oceans. What if we could redesign packaging to be ocean safe? We pose a question of what the future of packaging could be.

Just the tip of the iceberg

Have you ever used bubble wrap? Did you know the amount of bubble wrap that is produced annually is enough to wrap around the Equator ten times? What about plastic packaging, such as those stupid plastic beer can rings and net-things sleeved onto your fine alcohol and spirit bottles?

Every year 8 million metric tons of plastic ends up in the ocean. Great Britain’s Royal Statistical Society have reported that 91% of all plastic produced is not recycled. The Ellen McArthur Foundation has estimated by 2050 there will be more plastic in the oceans that there are fish (by weight). Over half of this plastic is from plastic packaging.

It simply doesn’t need to be this way.

The Challenge

How can we reduce the negative externalities (effects) of packaging, and instead promote positive externalities?

Plastic packaging is created from petroleum. It is often single use and when it is disposed of; landfill, ocean, or environment, it will take up to 500 years to decompose. In the ocean, as plastic breaks down it forms tiny micro-plastic particles. These micro-plastics break into smaller and smaller pieces, they have been found on every corner of the globe, in drinking water systems and adrift in our air. Microplastics drifting throughout the ocean are virtually impossible to ever recover. Overall, no benefit is being circled back into the economy of resources, all value is lost and all it does is harm.

The solution of course is to prevent waste from ever entering our rivers and oceans in the first place. But what if there was a packaging system that was 100% natural and infinity biodegradable, to replace our obsession with plastic?

What if this packaging not only 1) did no harm to the environment, but 2) had benefits to nature? Could packaging be based on a biological system, where it uses natural resources, and then post-use, these resources are beneficial when returned and reabsorbed into the biological cycle?

The illustration below explains this concept of designing out negative externalities and instead providing solutions with positive externalities.

Illustration ⓒ Jorgensen & Pedersen, 2018

Is ocean safe packaging possible?

The theory of creating positive externality packaging sounds too good to be true. I mean, if it was possible why are we still churning out 78 million tons of plastic packing annually?

Well, it is actually possible. In fact the thought process of externalities lead the kiwi team behind OceanWool© to wool packaging. The first target in sight for OceanWool© was to reinvent the forever-clever bubble wrap, liquor bottle nets and plastic beer rings.

Safe for the ocean

Wool is universally natural and biodegradable. New Zealand is also one of the best producers of wool in the world. Wool is made of protein, called Keratin. In the ocean, wool breaks down and is naturally consumed by living organisms as food and by the acidity of salt water. To relate this to the initial challenge; when returned to the natural environment, wool not only does no harm, it actually can do some good.

OceanWool© packaging is made through a unique process whereby wool is simply washed, combed and processed to form a fully pliable medium that can be cut, pressed, formed and moulded to create endless new packaging possibilities. These materials can be customised to suit almost any application. OceanWool© can also be coloured using 100% natural dyes derived from plants, in this case inspired by the beautiful colours found in marine coal.

The impact

Call us bold, but we believe that manufacturers using plastic packaging have a responsibility to consciously reduce the negative externalities they are putting into the environment. We love how OceanWool© is working to encourage everybody to say no to plastic packaging and replace it with a solution like this that is safe beneath the surface.

Choose planet over plastic.

Designers and Contributors: Blythe Rees-Jones, Luke Morreau, Dan Gillingham, Nathan Collier