Wasteful packaging: do consumers care?

The number of consumers who think they should be responsible for recycling has declined, according to a study released Wednesday. In 2010, 38% of Americans said consumers should take responsibility for recycling product packaging, down from 42% in 2009.

Consumers are also less willing to pay for environmentally friendly packaging even though most shoppers polled say manufacturers should produce more of it, according to the study "Packaging and the Environment," conducted by the New Jersey marketing firm Perception Research Services.

Although the percentage of consumers interested in buying products made from recycled materials has increased, from 39% in 2009 to 48% last year, just 17% of consumers say they check a package to see if it could be recycled before buying a product. One-third of respondents say they do not recycle any packaging at all. 

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 -- Susan Carpenter

Photo: Don Kelsen / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Alan Bravender]

Can't we outsource our trash and unrecyclable waste to 3rd world countries (and China) the way we do with our jobs, manufacturing, banking customer service and computer tech support as well ? Just a thought.

[Julie]

It would make life so much easier (and cleaner and healthier) if companies would package things in paper or glass and avoid the non biodegradable plastic issue altogether. Why must Lean Cuisine dinners come in plastic plates? Amy's organic dinners come in paper ones and they work just fine. Why must we use liquid soap when powders and bars work just as well? Powdered and bar soap can be packaged in paper and cardboard. Companies could also dispense soap and shampoo from permanent refillable tanks like butter at the popcorn machine at the movies. A person could come in the store with their glass or plastic bottle and fill it up. I know for a fact my big plastic Tide detergent bottle would last for 20 years in such a scenario.

[the Flying Dutchman]

we should move away from recycling, and towards reuse (at least in things like soda bottles, etc - which is the way it USED to be before the Plastics Council took over the world).
Also, things like styrofoam peanuts should be outlawed. Why do even have them when crushed (re-used) paper would do just as well?
Sad thing is, you bring these issues up to people and they shrug it off or it meets with outrage at the mere possibility of increased price or inconvenience.
Typical short-sighted Americans.
The Dead Kennedys had it right when they expressed "Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death!"

[melissa]

I only recycle my water bottles, tea bottles and even then I take them to work and leave them near the dumpster so bums can come by and collect them...my apartment has ZERO recycling...
Perhaps if apartments made it easier to recycle??? As of right now, its a lot of freaking work carrying my bags of recycles down 3 flights of stairs, take it to work and have someone else recycle them...
:(

OH not to mention i know how much garbage we produce and were only 2 people, I cant even imagine the entire complex as a whole...

[Joseph L Cooke]

Why not just toss it into a burn barrel and not max out landfills?

[Marshall]

I go out of my way to avoid products with annoying, wasteful packaging. When I see an over-packaged product my attention and money immediately goes elsewhere.

[Khadija]

I always wonder just who these people are that they supposedly survey. I am not the only person I know that cares about wasteful extra packaging. I have also (gladly) paid for items in green packaging. Apparently only 1/3 of these people recycle, so of course they don't care.

[Bender]

I don't care about packaging materials because they are not me.

[Stephen Hauskins]

I many ways we went backwards.

It use to be Soda bottles got returned and refilled, you paid a deposit.

Same was true for Milk.

There is another side of package that actually is fraudulent, as far as I am concerned. Putting items in larger boxes or bags so that you think you are getting more.

I recently had an item in a box, that had another box inside that contained the actual item that was in a small bottle.

[trust no one]

I've got a fat spliff in one hand and a bag of cheese puffs in the other. What has more wasteful packaging?

[Harpon]

I'm not so concerned over using recycled materials as with simply wasteful practices- much packaging can't be opened and a product returned without the business completely shipping an item back for repackaging. Then often sold as "refurbished".

then there is the quantity factor- having to buy items- batteries a big example- in quantities you don't particularly need.

Some of us still care about the environment- and have for years- in a big way-

but it's fallen into political incorrectness by Americans who fear they'll simply lose more things-

a little streamlining and efficiency in business would go a long way- after all it's business always pointing the finger at government and labor.

[Joe]

I dont care about the packaging because I stopped buying when the sales tax rate went to 10%.

[Matt]

Well one solution is to follow germany's lead and charge money for trash and make recycling free.

And maybe if we highlighted company's that dealt with re-usable materials as business models we'd see a culture shift, with the need for jobs it seems like it'd be an easy pitch. Turn trash into building materials, my company's sister company ProFILE does this every day by shredding confidential documents, bleaching the paper, and then turning the new pulp into more paper or boxes, or whatever type of paper product that's in demand.

It's all done For-Profit, but just happens to be incredibly Green. We also used to shred plastics but there wasn't enough waste locally for it to be sustainable. But it's very easy and very do-able with a single machine.