Packaging

It occurs to me that another compelling argument for buying local goods is packaging. My very first job out of college was working as a technical editor for Kraft Foods in some suburb of Chicago. I was editing recipe specifications for various products (Blueberry Morning cereal, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, etc.), and while there were generally two or three specifications for each product that were actual recipes, the vast majority of the specifications were packaging. For Mac'n'Cheese alone, you have the foil bag for the powdered cheese mix, the small paperboard carton for the macaroni and the foil bag, then a corrugated cardboard carton in which 12 or 24 paperboard cartons go, and sometimes there's an even larger corrugated cardboard carton in which four of the smaller corrugated cardboard cartons go, and finally, a pallet on which the cartons are stacked, frequently with more cardboard between the layers of cartons, and wrapped in plastic wrap.

Pallets account for an appalling amount of lumber usage and are rarely fully recycled. Vast amounts of cardboard are used to protect the product while it is shipped over large distances. And foil packets are completely unrecyclable.

By contrast, locally produced foods have almost no packaging, and most of that packaging is reused many times before being recycled. Our farmshare comes in reusable waxed corrugated cardboard boxes, which we save and return to them each week. Occasionally, loose greens will be packaged in plastic bags, but other than that, even the rubber band used for bunches of vegetables like kale can be returned for reuse.

Meat from our meatshare does come vacuum-sealed in plastic, but it is delivered in wholly reusable coolers. And their eggs are packaged in reused egg cartons. I've organized my cohousing community to save all their egg cartons and deliver them to Chestnut Farm each month when I pick up my share.

Produce brought to farmers' markets is typically brought in reusable plastic totes or bushel baskets. If you plan ahead and bring reusable bags, you can avoid taking home plastic bags as well.

Even locally produced goods such as maple syrup, honey, cheese, soaps, jams, jellies, flours, and breads probably use no more packaging than is needed for the product itself. That means far fewer trees felled to produce pallets and packaging cardboard, and far less energy consumed in producing the packaging.

I'm curious to know whether glass milk bottles are more energy efficient than plastic or paper bottles. They're heavier and more costly to transport, but they use renewable materials more effectively and, in my opinion, better preserve the flavor of the milk. Does anyone have information on this?