SOME 174 MILLION tons of plastic packaging is
produced globally each year. Only 20 percent of it
gets recycled, and what’s not disposed of properly
ends up in our environment. Single-use plastic con-
tainers and wraps protect food in transit and extend
shelf life, but do they really need to last hundreds
of years? Designers and engineers who think not are
devising alternatives that can be easily cleaned and
reused, degrade into compost, or—best yet—disappear
as the product is consumed. —ELIZABETH ROYTEREDUCING PLASTIC WASTE
FROM FOOD CONTAINERS
PHOTOGRAPH BY REBECCA HALEFood packaging that’s
not single-use plastic
New container materials
and forms are advancing
from prototype to market.- TAKE OUT, TURN IN
In a design challenge at
New York City’s Pratt Institute,
students folded black plastic
sheets to make take-out con-
tainers that could be returned
to a collection point, sanitized,
and reused ad infinitum by a
consortium of take-out chains. - UTENSILS AND ALL
Another team in the Pratt
challenge used paperboard
to make a boxlike food con-
tainer with a fold-it-yourself
fork-spoon combination that
diners tear from a perforated
edge. The whole kit would
be compostable. - ECO-INSULATING
Packaged meal-kit services,
which ship ingredients for
home-cooked meals, are
a $3.1 billion market that some
analysts expect to increase
through at least 2023. Instead
of hard-to-recycle or nonrecy-
clable bubble film, ice packs,
and plastic foam, some kits
are cushioned and insulated
with liners of heavy paper and
Clima Cell, a bio-based foam
that can be dissolved to cellu-
losic fiber in a pulping plant.
CONTAINERS NOT SHOWN:
GROWING BOWLS
A Swedish institute is testing
a compressed, cellulose-based
container that could grow
with its contents. For example:
Soupmakers could fill it
with freeze-dried vegetables
and spices. As diners add hot
water, the container’s origami
folds stretch into a fully
compostable bowl.
MELTING PACKS
Thanks to dishwasher
and laundry soap “pods,”
consumers are used to prod-
ucts delivered in transparent
ethylene-based polymers
that dissolve in water. U.S. and
European regulators have pro-
nounced the polymers safe for
food uses. A U.S. manufacturer
says the disappearing pack-
aging doesn’t affect food’s
texture, smell, or taste. Some
protein supplements now
come in pods; in the future
they may deliver portions of
pasta, rice, oatmeal, and other
foods cooked with hot water.
Learn more about
plastic waste and take
the pledge to reduce it at
natgeo.com/plasticpledge.123EMBARK | PLANET OR PLASTIC?
THIS ARTICLE ORIGINATED IN OUR SPONSORED FUTURE OF FOOD DIGITAL SERIES.