Is Packaging Inherently Human Centered?

Have you ever bought something and the packaging was ridiculous? You had to get the pliers, scissors and use brute strength to open a small item. At the end of the procedure you've got a huge pile of random pieces of plastic. Or when you're doing homework and eating snacks, and soon there's a litter of random plastic wrappings strewn around your room. Even buying water bottles from Costco is a huge amount of plastic bottles wrapped together with plastic packaging.

Anthropocentrism is the viewpoint that humans are more important and integral to the environment than other animals. This way of thinking promotes assumptions that humans are not evolving anymore and are at the top of the food chain. "These ethics are often used to legitimize treating other species in ways that would be considered morally unacceptable if humans were similarly treated," (Sand, 2016). Unfortunately this happens all the time. People tend to believe that humans are above all other animals, creating situations like cutting down trees and destroying ecosystems.

That leads us to anthropocentric packaging; or packaging based on human needs and wants. Any packaging is anthropocentric in nature because of the inherent humanness of the idea. "The existence of more personalized and customized diets has resulted in an increase in package complexity," (Sand, 2016) with more options comes more packaged foods. The smart option would be to have everyone bring glass bottles and fill them up at the store. However, that becomes inconvenient, so we package everything in plastic, easily disposable containers. "In addition, online purchasing of packaged foods has created a new array of opportunities," (Sand, 2016) the amount of food that people buy both online and offline comes with an exponential amount of packaging.

Packaging is inherently based around the human. Only people buy and ship items. Only humans have a capitalistic way of living. Packaging is also awful for the environment in every respect. When making packaging, it releases toxic chemicals into the air. Shipping packaging uses carbon. Then throwing it away uses both carbon and landfills. Additionally, sometimes returning packaging is a source of income for people, therefore playing into a capitalistic and anthropocentric society. Even the idea of returning plastic for profit, while beneficial for the environment and for the wallets of the people, the waste is being created anyway. Is there a way that we could create packaging that would be sustainable?

"Sustainable packaging solutions are complex: The multinational status of global food companies produces different results in different economies," (Sand, 2016) sustainable packaging is that which is biodegradable and without harmful chemicals. It is more difficult to make and costs more money. That means that only people with money have access. Unfortunately, with societal factors at play, if an option is more expensive people with money are still less likely to buy it.

We are all people on this planet, and we all need to be conscientious about how items are being shipped and packaged for our consumption. As active consumers, one of the best things you can do is buy locally and forsake plastic items. If we all work together, and think about the earth as well as ourselves, we can make a difference.

Sand, Claire Koelsch. "Societal Factors Influence Packaging." IFT. Institute of Food Technologists, Mar. 2016. Web. 11 Apr. 2017. <http://www.ift.org/food-technology/past-issues/2016/march/columns/packaging-societal-factors-influence-packaging.aspx>.