DOCUMENT RESUME ED 092 349 SE 017 255 AUTHOR Darnay, Arsen; Franklin, William E. TITLE The Role of Packaging in Solid Waste Management1966 to 1976. INSTITUTION Environmental Health Service (DHEW/PHS), Rockville, Md. Bureau of Solid Waste Management. REPORT NO PHS-1855; SW -5c PUB DATE 69 NOTE 217p. AVAILABLE FROM Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C. 20402 ($2.25, paper cover) EDES PRICE MF-$0.75 HC-$10.20 PLUS POSTAGE DESCRIPTORS *Ecology; *Recycling; Socioeconomic Influences; *Waste Disposal; Wastes IDENTIFIERS *Packaging Waste; Solid Waste Management ABSTRACT The goals of waste processors and packagersobviously differ: the packaging industry seeks durablecontainer material that will be unimpaired by external factors. Untilrecently, no systematic analysis of the relationship between packaging and solidwaste disposal had been undertaken. This three-partdocument defines these interactions, and the differences, with possible solutions,are explored. Part I discusses packaging materials, consumptiondata from 1959 to 1966, and the outlook for the period from 1966to 1976. Part II, concerned with disposability, analyzes the collectability,the resistance to disposal and processing, and salvageability andre-use of packaging materials. Part III explores mechanismsto mitigate the problems that arise from this type of waste: how research,education, incentive programs, taxes, and regulationscan reduce the quantity and reduce the processing difficulties of this disposedmaterial, yet save the natural resources from which packages ase made. (Author/JP) 4t rst 's s " 4Mb CT O Urucur Or IDACIKACISIC 1 N scum WASTE AASIACIVAIENT 14CC TC 141/C PAnT The Outlook for Packaging, 1966 to 1976' PART : The Disposability of Packaging Materials PART Ill:Mechanisms for Mitigating Problems Caused by Packaging Materials in Waste Disposal This publication (SW-5c) was written for the Bureau of Solid Waste Management by ARSEN DARNAV quid WILLIAM E. FRANKLIN Midwest Research Institute, Kansas City, Missouii ander Contract No. I'll 86-67-11,1 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF' HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE Public Health Service CONSUMER PROTECTION AND ENVIRONMENTAL IlEALTII SERVICE ENVIRONNIENTAL CONTROL. ADMINISTRATION Bureau of Solid Waste Management ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND 1969 Public Health Service Publication No. 1855 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NO. 76-601197 For sale by the Suivrintervient of 4)0eurnents, 11,S. (1overnment Prioting Office Washington, U.C. 2040'2- Price $22 (paper cover) FOREWORD Packaging and solid wastes are closely linked in public awareness. Bottles, cans, plastic and paper wrappings and cartons are all too - visible- discards around us. What the public sees as litter has been confirmed as a general solid waste problem with many facets. As pointed out in this report, 52Million tons of packaging mate- rials were produced and used in the United States in 1966. Only 10 percent of this amount was reused or recycled back into industrial raw material channels. Ninety percent became solid wastes, accounting for over 13 percent of the Nation's total volume of solid wastes from residential, commercial, and industrialsources. Packaging is increasing much more rapidly than population. Estimated national per capita consumption of packaging materials was 404 pounds in 1958,525 pounds in 1966 and will be 661 pounds by 1976. Such increases are caused by several factorsself - service merchandising, ever-advancing production technology, public desire for convenience, general affluence, and the pervasive nature of packaging. We have seen the trend toward prepared and packaged foods that lighten the housewife's kitchen chores. But packaging has also become an important part of the sales pitch. As many a woman who has bought a beautifully packaged jar of face cream can tell you, the media is the message. The 4colorprocess package of baby string beans sells the box, while the set of screw drivers in the blister pack sends dad home from the hardware store 16 ith the set instead of the single tool. To a large extent the aims of packaging and of solid waste disposal are mutually exclusive. The packager wantsand technology is developinga container that won't burn, break, crush, degrade, or dissolve in water. The waste processor wants a package which is easy to reduce by burning, breaking, compaction, or degradation. The final objective of solid waste management is 'to reduce the total quantities of solid waste and unsalvageable materials through recovery and reuse. In an ideal system, packaging materials would never be discardedthey would be reprocessed by, industry and made into new packages or other products. Packaging does indeed pervade our culture. Now and for the immediate future we will have to deal with the disc-u-ded portions of 52 million and more annual tons of these materials. The present report is, we feel, a significant explora- tion of the nature of this problem. Mutant) D. VAUGHAN, Director, Bureau of Solid Waste Management. SUMMARY This document presents the findings of a research effort to define the role of packaging in waste disposal in the 1966 to 1976 period. The report is divided into three parts: Part 1 presents historical packaging material consumption data for the 1958 to 1966 period, a forecast of packaging material consumption to 1976, and a discussion of the economic, technological, marketing, and demographic trends and forces underlying the forecast. iii PACKAGING Part II analyzes the disposability of packaging materials in 1966 and in 1976. The quantitative solid waste burden imposed by packaging in the two years is discussed, as well as collection problems engendered by packaging, anti packaging material resistance to disposal processing. Part III is an exploratory analysis of the various mechanisms that might be employed for mitigating the problems caused by packaging materials in waste disposal. These above sections are followed by two appendices. Appendix I presents tabtdar materials that will permit interested persons to follow the route by whichwe arrived at our Disposal Resistance Index figures. Appendix Il is a bibliography of literature used as background for this analysis. MI tabular and graphic materials are numbered consecutively throughout the report, as are all reference citations. The references cited are found listed at the end of the report in the section preceding the appendices. Part I In 1966, 51.7 million tons of packaging materials were produced and sold in the United Status. Of this massive tonnagemade up of many billions of individual units, most of them weighing much less than a pound eachabout 90 percent en. tered the stream of solid wastes that had to be disposed of, thus accounting for about 13 percent of the 350 million tons (9.7 pounds per person per day) of resi- dential, commercial, and portions of industrial wastes generated.* The 1966 tonnage was well above 1958 packaging materials consumption. In 1958, 35.4 million tons were consumed in the United States. And in 1976, con- sumption of packaging materials across the nation should have increased to 73.5 million tons, up 21.8 million tons from 1966. Packaging is increasing in quantity much more rapidly than population. Per capita consumption of packaging materials was 404 pounds in 1958, 525 pounds in 1966, and will be 661 pounds by 1976. Many factors underlie this dramatic increase, but chief among them is the continuing rise of self-service merchandising, creating a growing need for packages that sell the product without the help of a sales clerk. This accounts for much of the quantitative increase. Qualitative changes will be brought about by the need for improved product differentiation by packaging methods (another result of self-service merchandising requirements), the rise of many new food products which call for unique packaging golutions (instant foods, freeze-dried foods, etc.), and the vastly expanded choice in materials provided the package designer by the advent of plastics and other relatively new packaging materials. In spite of these forces, the relative importance of the basic packaging mate- rialspaper, glass, metals, wood, plastics, and textileswill remain about the same throughout the 1966 to 1976 period. Paper and paperboard which accounted for 54.8 percent of all packaging by weight in 1966, will represent 56.9 percent of *Excludes agricultural wastes (1.3 billion tons a year), mining wastes (I billion tons per year), scrapped automobiles (6 million units or about 15 million tons per year), and building rubble, for which we have no estimates. iv IN 80110 WASTE MANAGEMENT packaging in 1976. Metals anti glass will also maintain their proportions of the market. Both wood anti textiles will decline somewhat. Only in plastics packaging materials will there be a dramatic change: plastics, which held 2.4 percent of the packaging market by weight in 1966, will have don! led their share by 1976. Part H Of packaging materials consumed in 1966, approximately 46.5 million tons were discarded as waste; the remaining 10 percent was returned for reuse or re. processed into new products. Collection and disposal of this tonnage cost the nation $419 million in 1966. Assuming no increase in the costs of collection and disposal, which is unlikely, ex penditures on the disposal processing of packaging materials will stand at $595 million in 1976, up by $176 million. In that year, 66.2 million tons of packaging will have to be handled as waste. Collection of the increase alone, seine 19.7 million tons, will require nearly 5 million collection trips in 1976; trips that did not have to be made in 1966, and which will call for the addition of some 9,500 new collection vehicles at a cost ranging between $135 and $190 million. Collection will be more difficult for several reasons: a dramatic increase in oneway beverage containers is expected to intensify the litter problem; the uncom- pacted density of packaging material wastes will decrease because lighter and more resilient materials will have gained a proportionately larger share of packaging markets (measured in weight); d compactibility of packaging wastes will have deteriorated slightly.