It's All in the Package
Students learn about environmentally friendly packagingCopyright 2008 Christian Gahle, Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bio-K_Abfallbeutel_Kompostbeutel_CG.jpg
Students explore the concept of "reducing" solid waste and how it relates to product packaging and engineering advancements in packaging materials. They read about and evaluate the highly publicized packaging decisions of two major U.S. corporations. Then they evaluate different ways to package items in order to minimize the environmental impact, while considering issues such as cost, availability, product attractiveness, etc. In addition, students explore "hydropulping" and consider its use as a recycling process.
Aseptic packaging is an incredible innovation developed by engineers to protect sterile products from contamination by locking out light and air, while sealing in nutrients and flavor. Due to the multi-layer packaging, dairy products in aseptic packaging can remain on a grocery store shelf for up to a year without refrigeration. Engineers play a key role in the creation of these very inventive packing products from the design stage through the implementation/development stage, as well as their end-of-life processing.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Identify packaging qualities that make it environmentally friendly or unfriendly.
- Describe some different points of view around product packaging (the manufacturer, consumer, etc.).
- Suggest/invent a more environmentally friendly package for a familiar item that currently has wasteful packaging.
- Analyze environmental packaging and waste data using percentages, ranking and graphing.