Good things come in efficient packages
Thursday, April, 22, 1999
By Kyla King
The Grand Rapids Press
Jamie Thompson always buys cereal in bags, soda in large bottles and eggs in
small cartons.
Although her shopping habits are primarily motivated by cost, the mother of
one considers it an added bonus that a new study claims her choices are
environmentally friendly.
"I'm concerned about the environment, so I try to do what I can with
recycling and things," said Thompson during a shopping trip to the Knapp's
Corner Meijer store along East Beltline Avenue NE. "It's just not always
that easy."
But environmentalist Bob Lilienfeld claims it can be.
Lilienfeld says if 380,000 households in the Grand Rapids area changed the
way they purchase 10 products -- such as eggs and tuna -- they could reduce
the amount of trash generated by 54,300 tons, a savings of $5.4 million in
garbage bills.
"It's all about the packaging," said Lilienfeld, an Ann Arbor resident who
publishes a bi-monthly newsletter devoted to solving environmental problems
related to packaging.
"If we start thinking about buying products with the least amount of
packaging, it's amazing how much less trash you generate."
The report claims that if everyone in the United States switched their
buying habits on the same 10 items, trash generation would fall by 7
percent, or about 14 million tons
Although Michigan has laws that require bottles and cans to be collected for
recycling, Lilienfeld said reducing is still a good habit to get into
because those materials are not always recycled.
"Reducing is always better than recycling," Lilienfeld said. "It's better
not to create waste then to figure out what do with it."
As for some collected materials that don't get recycled, "The stuff sits in
warehouses because the market fluctuates," he said. "There's many times it
gets thrown out.
"In fact, only 20 to 25 percent of glass actually gets recycled. The rest
gets collected."
The study was released to coincide with today's Earth Day celebration, but
Lilienfeld said he developed it with the hope of encouraging consumers to
think about environmental issues all year long.
"The problem with Earth Day is we need to think about this stuff every day,"
Lilienfeld said. "Just worrying about the environment on Earth Day doesn't
make any sense. This is something everybody can do and in virtually every
case you don't have to change the brand, and you may even save some money."
Lilienfeld used a study conducted by the Michigan State University School of
Packaging to develop the list of 10 items.
Commissioned by the Washington-based National Consumers League, the MSU
study looked at 40 product categories and examined the types of packaging
used to determine which creates the most and least amount of garbage.
Lilienfeld calculated the projected weight savings by looking at how many
times the average family buys each of the 10 products per year, then used
the MSU study to find out how much the different packaging weighed.
Local shoppers at Meijer had mixed reactions to the suggestions.
Rockford resident Amy Dood said she would buy cereal in bags if it were
"more consumer friendly."
"It doesn't always taste the same and there's not enough variety," Dood
said. "We would buy more bagged stuff if they sold all cereals in bags."
Grand Rapids resident Dawn Foster said the suggestions are impractical for
someone shopping for one person like her.
"Most of that stuff comes in bulk, and I don't need that much," Foster said.
"I prefer convenience."
But sisters Emily and Elaine Delrue of Grand Rapids said changing a few
buying habits isn't too much to ask to cut down on trash generation.
The sisters, who were shopping for their family Sunday, said they always
purchase cereal in bags and would make a conscious effort to think about the
amount of packaging when choosing products.
"It doesn't seem like it'd be hard to do that stuff," Emily Delrue said. "If
it helps the environment, we'd try it."
Packages Waste not — with efficient products
Commissioned by the Washington-based National Consumers League, the MSU
study looked at 40 product categories and examined the types of packaging
used to determine which creates the most and least amount of garbage.
Lilienfeld calculated the projected weight savings by looking at how many
times the average family buys each of the 10 products per year, then used
the MSU study to find out how much the different packaging weighed.
Local shoppers at Meijer had mixed reactions to the suggestions.
Rockford resident Amy said she would buy cereal in bags if it were "more
consumer friendly."
"It doesn’t always taste the same and there’s not enough variety," Dood
said. "We would buy more magged stuff if they sold all cereals in bags."
Grand Rapids resident Dawn Foster said the suggestions are impractical for
someone shopping for one person like her.
"Most of that stuff comes in bulk, and I don’t need that much," Foster said.
"I prefer convenience."
But sisters Emily and Elaine Delrue of Grand Rapids said changing a few
buying habits isn’t too much to ask to cut down on trash generation.
The sisters, who were shopping for their family Sunday, said they always
purchase cereal in bags and would make a conscious effort to think about the
amount of packaging when choosing products.
"It doesn’t seem like it’d be hard to do that stuff," Emily Delrue said.
"If it helps the environment, we’d try it."
A foam egg carton weighs .4 ounces (not even 1/2 an ounce).
a pulp paper egg carton weighs 1.6 ounces. (requiring more landfill space volume).