THE COLE CE
U I M INC IN
SOLID WASTE
MANAGEMENT
1966 T€ 1976
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ACKAGING is intrinsically connected with the mass distribution
of goods in the U.S. marketplace. With a few exceptions-auto-
mobiles, newspapers, and some building materials, for example—
everything is packaged in one form or another before it reaches its
destination. In 1966, U.S. consumers, businesses, and industries spent more
than $25 billion on packaging in all its aspects-about 3.4 percent of the
Gross National Product.
Packaging materials reach two distinct markets: the consumer on the
one hand, and businesses and industries on the other. Consumers spend 75
cents of every dollar spent on packaging. The consumer wants—and tech-
nology is developing—containers that won't burn, break, crush, degrade, or
dissolve. Those responsible for disposing of packaging materials once they've
served their purpose want containers that are easy to burn, break, crush,
degrade, or dissolve. This paradox is at the core of the disposal problems
posed by packaging materials, problems which are on the increase.
In 1966, the U.S. used 103 billion pounds of bottles, cans, plastic and
paper wrappings, cartons, and what have you. About 90 percent of these
materials was discarded, representing over 13 percent of all solid wastes
coming out of U.S. homes, businesses, and industries. By 1976 annual con-
sumption of packaging materials will be 147 billion pounds. About a third
of this increase will come from population growth; the remainder will come
from the fact that each American will be using more packaging materials.
THE PERFECT
CONTAINER
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A, LOCK
AT THE
INDUSTRY
Packaging production is a form of materials processing. The package manu-
facturer sizes, shapes, and joins paper, metals, glass, wood, plastics, and
textiles to obtain the package he wants. It is filled and closed, then usually
packed for shipment.
The many kinds of techniques used to produce packages-glass blowing
and steel forming, for instance-call for complicated equipment. More im-
portant from the technological point of view is that the package manufacturer
almost always combines dissimilar materials. A glass bottle capped by a
metal closure with a cork or plastic gasket is but one example of the many
material combinations encountered in packaging.
The package itself can be made by a number of different fabricators-by
the raw material processor, an independent converter, the packager, or the
retail merchant. Even the consumer acts as a package fabricator when he
wraps a Christmas gift.
Different patterns have evolved and continue to evolve for the several
major industries supplying packaging materials. The largest, paper and paper-
board manufacturing, is a highly integrated activity. The typical large paper
company gets virgin fiber from its own forests and can convert the tree into
a package. The buyer needs only to fill, seal, and label the container. At least
part of the reason for such a high degree of integration is that a large per-
centage of total paper and paperboard production enters packaging markets,
thus creating enough business to justify installing converting facilities tied
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$16.2 BILLION IN PACK-
AGING MATERIALS
$9.0 BILLION IN VALUE
ADDED TO THE MATE-
RIALS BY THE PACKAG-
ING MANUFACTURER
$0.2 BILLION IN MA-
CHINES TO PROCESS
IN 1966, THE U.S.
SPENT S25.4 DILLICN
CP 3.4 PERCENT CF
THE GNP, CN
PACKAGING
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TRENDS IN
V4ATIHAIA
to raw materials production.
The industrial structure that has evolved for production of metal con-
tainers differs from that found in paper, principally because a much smaller
percentage of total industry output goes into packages. The steel industry
makes sheet steel, but most cans are made by independent converters under
contract to the packager. On the other hand, aluminum manufacturers, since
they are trying to create larger markets, not only sell aluminum stock to con-
verters but sometimes also make the cans.
Technology is the factor that shapes the glass package manufacturing
industry. Unlike other packaging materials, the glass containers must be
formed as part of the overall glass production process. So the glass producer
is also the container producer. Until recently, plastics manufacturers confined
their activities to supplying resins to independent converters. In the past few
years, however, manufacturers have begun to make films, bottles, and tubes.
Higher consumption rates per capita are but one of several trends affecting
the outlook for packaging materials in the next few years. At the root of
higher consumption rates is the emergence of self-service merchandising.
In this distribution system, the package, not the sales clerk, sells the product.
Attractively packaged items have an advantage over products lacking flashy
garments. Consequently, packaging has penetrated into new areas. Lettuce
wrapped in plastic film, hand tools encased in shrink-wrap plastics, textile
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661 POUNDS
PER PERSON
PER YEAR
525 POUNDS
PER PERSON
PER YEAR
405 POUNDS
PER PERSON
PER YEAR
AMERICANS ACE
CONSUMING MCCE
PACKAGING MATERI4
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products bagged in paper or plastics-all were once displayed in bins or on
shelves without wrappings. Thus, more products are reaching the consumer
in packaged form.
Another trend in packaging is to more types of packages. This trend
results from a number of factors. One is introduction of many new products.
The food industry is a good example. Frozen, pressurized, freeze-dried, and
instant foods call for new modes of packaging.
Competition among packaging materials is another factor. As new types
of packages invade a market, the established ones aren't necessarily dis-
placed. Shampoo, for example, once available only in glass bottles, now is
also available in plastic' bottles and in flexible plastic tubing.
Convenience, both to the shopper and the retailer, leads to more types
of packages. The multi-pack is an example. The housewife finds it easier to
pick up a six-pack of juice cans or a sleeve of flash bulbs—although it also
means she may have to buy more than she wants-and the retailer finds it
easier to place on his shelves. The manufacturer has found that the merchant
is likelier to buy his product if it is easy to remove from the master container,
holds up well in storage, maintains its brightness and attractiveness under
artificial light, and is difficult to pilfer and damage.
Popularity of containers easy to use and reuse is still another factor
leading to more types of packages. The homemaker rejects containers that
are difficult to open or to reseal adequately. She wants a package that will
fit her refrigerator or cabinet shelves. She dislikes breakable containers in
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MISCELLANEOUS. 21.1%
BEVERAGES, 12.6%
CHEMICALS AND ALLIED PRODUCTS, 11./%
PAPER, PRINTED AND ALLIED PRODUCTS, 3.9%
TEXTILE AND APPAREL, 2.7%
HARDWARE, 2.4%
PETROLEUM PRODUCTS, 1.9%
ECCE) INDUSTRY
IS LARSEST USER CE
CCNSUMER PACKAGE!
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the bathroom. She does not want to return deposit-type containers. She likes
pressurized cans. And she is an inveterate collector of jelly jars that she
can use as drinking glasses, or plastic tubs to use for storage of leftovers
or other household items.
As packages are called on to do more than just hold and protect the
product, costs increase. To keep costs down, package manufacturers, package
buyers, and material producers have tried to exploit existing technology to the
fullest. A host of innovations—among them new materials, combinations of
materials, containers using less material, and improved packaging machinery
—have helped to cut total merchandising costs while improving package
quality.
Each packaging material has definite advantages and disadvantages, not
only in performance as a package but in machinability, weight, size, appear-
ance, cost, or in combinations of these. These advantages and disadvantages
are also related to the product being packaged. Some products require a lot of
protection; others do not. Some look attractive when displayed through a
translucent covering; others are best hidden behind an opaque covering.
The package designer must find his way to a container that gives maximum
performance at minimum cost.
Packaging manufacturers have always combined materials. What is sig-
nificant today is that the advent of plastics has increased dramatically the
number of materials suitable for combination. Furthermore, new coatings
and adhesives permit combining materials that once could not be combined.
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The increase in options available to the package manufacturer, coupled with
the demand for new and better packages, is the predominant reason for
the wave of innovation sweeping packaging today, a wave that has not yet
reached its crest.
Despite these trends, paper, glass, metals, wood, plastics, and textiles-in
that order—should continue as the major packaging materials, on a weight
basis, until at least 1976. There will be some slight shifting, however. Metals,
wood, and textiles will decline somewhat in the portion of the market they
hold on the basis of tonnages. Paper and glass will hold their present shares.
The only dramatic change will be in plastics, which will double their share
of the market between 1966 and 1976.
Paper and paperboard dominate the field. They accounted for about half of all
tonnages consumed in 1966, as they are projected to do in 1976. About half
of the production of the paper and paperboard industry is used for packag-
ing. Paper and paperboard dominate packaging because paper can package
almost any item that does not need the exceptional protective characteristics
of metal, glass, or plastic containers.
Paper is a relatively inexpensive, highly machinable, strong, and printable
material. It can be combined with other materials to improve its performance
characteristics and can be formed into a wide variety of rigid, semirigid, and
flexible containers. Even when paper is not the primary package for a par-
THE CASIC
PACKAGING
MATERIALS
PAPER WILL
CONTINUE TO
DOMINATE
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GLASS CONTAINERS
DATE TC EACLT
CIVILIZATIONS
ticular item, it is likely to be the secondary package and also the container
in which the product is shipped to market. For example, aspirin is packaged
in a glass bottle, the bottle is put inside a paperboard box, and then many
of these small boxes are packed in a corrugated container to be sent to
retail outlets.
Glass is one of the oldest container materials. Along with wood and textiles,
it traces its packaging history to the early civilizations. In 1976, it should
hold 16 percent of the packaging market, as it did in 1966. Glass makes a
strong container with high-gloss transparency. It is chemically inert and an
absolute barrier against all external influences except temperature and light.
Foodstuffs in contact with glass do not take on an offtaste, which has made
glass a favorite in food packaging. Glass containers can be made cheaply
with automatic bottle-making equipment. The major drawbacks of glass
containers are that they are relatively heavy and fragile. In the past 20 years,
however, glass technology has succeeded in reducing average bottle weight
by a third and in developing new coatings to make bottles more durable.
Glass container usage in coming years will continue to grow along
traditional lines, despite serious competition from metals and plastics—with
one major exception. Shipments of glass containers for beverages will more
than double in the 1966 to 1976 period as nonreturnable glass containers
replace the returnable bottle in soft drinks and beer. Each returnable con-
tainer makes about 19 trips to the marketplace during its useful life of
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CONSUMPTION
OF PAOIV1GINC
MATERIALS IS
CISINO STEADI
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METALS MAI C
A STCCNG
CONTAINER
slightly over one year. In total, glass containers made 71.8 billion trips to the
marketplace in 1956, of which 45.1 billion were made by returnable containers.
This illustrates the tremendous service performed by returnable bottles in
keeping glass out of waste, although they represent under 10 percent of total
new units. It also shows the huge potential market glass makers see when
they contemplate replacing returnable bottles with throw-aways.
Metals have one overriding advantage as a packaging material—they are
strong. Metal containers protect their contents from the effects of heat, cold,
moisture, rough handling, and light, and they lend themselves to attractive
decoration. Metal's share of the packaging market will drop from 14 percent
in 1966 to 11 percent in 1976. About 90 percent of all metal packaging material,
on a weight basis, is steel. Aluminum accounts for the rest; its use is growing
rapidly and is expected to continue to do so.
Nearly 75 percent of the metals consumed was converted into metal cans.
Made mostly of tin-coated steel stock, these cans provided 54.4 billion pack-
aging units in 1966. The use of lighter steel, more aluminum, and technological
advances in both steel and aluminum cans will lead to a rate of growth in
the number of units consumed that is twice as high as the rate growth in the
pounds of metals consumed. By 1976, we can expect 78.3 billion metal cans
to be produced.
The remaining 25 percent of the metals consumed in 1966 was distributed
among three consumer markets—aluminum and foil semirigid containers,
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A RETURNABLE
ECTTLE MA^ES
19 TRIPS IN
ITS LIFETIME
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>VCOD"S SHAPE
Or MAPRET
WILL DEO 13
PLASTICS HAVE
BAPELr TAPPED
THEII POTENTIAL
collapsible metal tubes, and metal cans and crowns-and three industrial
markets—steel drums and pails, gas cylinders, and metal strapping.
Wood, although a traditional packaging material, represents only a minor
segment of all packaging materials today. In terms of tonnages, its share
of the market will drop from 8 percent in 1966 to 6 percent in 1976. Wood
containers are used primarily because of their relatively low cost and high
strength. Wood is usually used in its natural state, and will probably con-
tinue to be so used. Wood containers often go through several cycles of use
before they are discarded. Most are used for packaging agricultural products
-fruits, vegetables, and poultry-and industrial products—plumbing, castings,
machinery, chemicals, and the like. A few are used in consumer packaging-
berry boxes and cigar boxes, for example.
Plastics have created a renaissance in packaging-and their potential
seems hardly to have been tapped. Although they have been used in pack-
aging since the 1950's, volume uses developed about 1960, when polyethylene
prices dropped. The use of plastics in packaging has grown from 736 million
pounds in 1958 to 2.2 billion in 1966. (These figures include cellophane, which
it not really a plastic, since it is derived from wood. It is included with plastics,
because it is used in the same products and has similar characteristics.)
On a weight basis, plastics represented only 2 percent of total packaging
in 1966, but on a dollar basis they held just under 10 percent of all packaging
shipments. In 1976, plastic's share of the market, by weight, will climb to
4 percent.
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Plastics are popular because:
D They are strong, durable materials that perform well at high and
low temperatures.
D They can be used as rigid, flexible, or semirigid materials.
n They can be readily colored and produced as clear or opaque con-
tainers.
D They are excellent barrier materials. They resist chemicals, oils, and
greases; they can be made to transmit, exclude, or contain vapors and
gases.
n They are easy to work with, in both the manufacturing and filling
stages.
Flexible films and molded containers or closures are the two basic types
of plastics used in packaging. In 1956, flexible films had 60 percent of the
plastics packaging market, formed and molded plastics the remainder. In the
next few years the formed and molded plastics will outdistance the films,
capturing 54 percent of the market in 1976 on a weight basis. The big loser will
be cellophane, which will show a decrease in actual tons consumed. The use
of cellophane has been declining for some years as producers of plastics
have learned to duplicate the properties of cellophane at competitive costs.
Textiles are the only packaging material that has lost ground in recent years
in actual tonnages consumed. In 1958, 574 million pounds were used in
packaging; in 1966 the amount had dropped to 503 million and would have
been even smaller were it not for the many sandbags used in Vietnam. In
TEXTILES
LOSING
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DISDCSABILITr
€P
PACKAGING
MATERIALS
1976, the figure will be 300 million. From a 0.5 percent share of the market
in 1966, textiles will fall to 0.3 percent by 1976.
Miscellaneous packaging materials held 11 percent of the packaging market
in 1966. They should hold the same share in 1976. This group contains mate-
rials that are not strictly containers but are better classified as package com-
ponents. Wooden pallets and skids represent about 70 percent of this group-
ing, on a weight basis. Other categories include cushioning materials, con-
nective components such as tapes and twine, and coating or applied materials.
Of the 350 million tons of residential, commercial and industrial solid wastes
the United States generated in 1966, packaging materials accounted for 46.5
million tons. On the basis of $9 per ton for collection and disposal, packaging
wastes cost the Nation $419 million to process from the user to ultimate
disposal. In 1976, packaging wastes will rise to 66.1 million tons and costs
to $595 million, assuming no increase in the costs of collection and disposal.
The cost per ton is likely to increase, however, because:
Labor costs are rising.
Wastes will be less dense.
Processing costs will be higher, since incinerators and sanitary land-
fills will be replacing open dumps.
Collection is by far the most costly part of waste processing, accounting
for 90 percent of total costs. Collection of the increase in packaging wastes—
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PEC CAPITA
CONSUMPTION
BEVEPACE CCNTAINEPS
WILL ALMCST DOUBLE
BETWEEN 1966 AND 197
120.7
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COLLECTION
BECOMING MOKE
DIEEICULT
DENSITY AND
CAiPACTIBILITr
Afl CHANGING
19.6 million tons more in 1976 than in 1966-will require nearly 5 million more
collection trips. These additional trips will call for 9,500 new collection vehicles
at a cost ranging between $135 million and $190 million.
Other factors will add not only to the cost but also the difficulty of collecting
packaging wastes. One is litter. A survey in Kansas found that discarded
packages accounted for 65 percent of litter items; if paper cups are considered
packaging materials, the percentage jumps to 88 percent. Litter volume may
rise sharply during the next 10 years, unless some kind of national conscience
can be developed. The reason is the dramatic increase expected in throwaway
beverage containers.
Density and compactibility, two closely related characteristics of packaging
wastes, are shifting and making collection more difficult. With denser ma-
terials, the space capacity of the collection vehicle—nearly always the limit-
ing factor—is utilized better. Since most collection vehicles are compactor
types, materials of the same natural density are more collectible when they
are in shapes which can be compacted.
Viewed as a whole, packaging wastes are a heterogeneous mixture of
paper, metal, glass, plastic, wood, and textile packages in thousands of con-
figurations. The composition and density of a representative ton of packaging
wastes are changing. Assuming that the materials are compressed to their
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770 PAPER CUPS
730 EMPTY CIGARETTE PACKAGES
590 BEER CANS
130 POP BOTTLES
120 BEER BOTTLES
110 WHISKEY BOTTLES
90 BEER CARTONS
90 OIL CANS
50 PAPER LIVESTOCK FEED BAGS
30 PAPER CARTONS
26 MAGAZINES
20 HIGHWAY MAPS
16 EMPTY COFFEE CANS
10 SHIRTS
10 TIRES
10 BURLAP BAGS
4 BUMPERS
4 SHOES—NO PAIRS
2 UNDERSHIRTS
2 COMIC BOOKS
2 BED SPRINGS
270 MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS
natural density wi-th all air space eliminated, the 1966 ton takes up 29.9
cubic feet, but the 1976 ton would take up 31.2 cubic feet. Thus, 1976 packag-
ing wastes will be harder to collect.
Many factors in the shifting mix of packaging materials are expected to
make the wastes increasingly difficult to compact; a few basic changes will
be especially important:
D Paperboard, the most difficult of paper packages to compact, is increasing
its share of paper and paperboard tonnages.
D Easily compacted metal cans are losing some of their share of the market.
G Glass, another compactible material, is increasing, but not enough to
offset the decline in metal cans.
D Plastic film, which is resilient and so resists compaction, is increasing.
PACKAGING
MATERIALS
MAKE UP A
LAPSE DAPT
CE LITTER
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DISPOSAL
TECHNIQUES
ACE AES€
CHANGINC
Once collected, wastes can be disposed of directly to the land. Or they can first
be reduced in volume—either by burning, composting, or salvaging—and the
residues from these operations can then be deposited or buried on land.
Open dumping is a common practice—about three-quarters of all solid
wastes was disposed of in dumps in 1966. Dumps are slowly being eliminated,
however, which means that growing tonnages will be handled by sanitary
landfill and incineration.
In a sanitary landfill, wastes are deposited on land, compacted by heavy
machinery, and covered daily by compacted earth to avoid odors, unsight-
liness, and unsanitary conditions. By 1976, 13 percent of U.S. municipal
wastes will be disposed of by this process, up from 5 percent in 1966. De-
gradability is an important characteristic in sanitary landfilling. Since many
landfill sites are planned for recreational or other ultimate use, the soil
should retain as few tell-tale traces of its landfill days as possible.
On the whole, however, packaging materials are not degradable. Even paper,
the most degradable of the major materials, has been reported to persist
unchanged in landfills for as long as 60 years.
Incineration will handle 18 percent of wastes by 1976, up from 14 percent
in 1966. It is a good reduction technique, cutting the volume of wastes by
70 to 80 percent, and the weight by 60 to 80 percent. With the exception of
glass and metal containers, all packaging materials will burn. Some plastics
have lower burning rates than the other packaging materials. Another major
consideration in incineration is the inert residue left after burning. A ton
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SANITARY LANDFILL 5%
SANITARY LANDFILL 13%
OPEN DUMPING
WILL CONTINUE
TO BE MAJeC
DISPOSAL METHOD
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rcc
SALVAGE
APPPECIAELE
AMCUNTS or
PAPER APE
SALVAGED
of packaging materials containing representative proportions of all materials
leaves a residue of about 705 pounds. Metal and glass containers account
for about 90 percent of the residue. Clearly, removing glass and metal con-
tainers would virtually eliminate the secondary disposal problems associated
with incineration of packaging wastes.
A very small percentage of packaging materials is ever salvaged, reused, or
converted once they enter the residential trash barrel. The U.S. salvage
industry is large and active. But it uses almost exclusively commercial and
industrial wastes from which it can obtain large quantities of relatively high-
purity materials. The major cost of salvage lies in collection and separation
of the materials, so the salvage industry finds the heterogeneous mass of
municipal wastes an unattractive source of supply. A fundamental demand
in the salvage industry is for materials of even greater "purity" while at the
same time the packaging industry is multiplying the types of packages, in-
creasing the variety of packages, combining several materials, and introducing
new families of materials with unique performance characteristics, new coat-
ings, and new inks.
A rundown of the major packaging materials shows the technological
and marketing obstacles faced in the attempts to increase salvage and reuse.
Paper is the only packaging material at present in which appreciable amounts
are salvaged. Old corrugated boxes are often profitably collected from retail
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stores because the volumes are substantial and the boxes are clean and
kept separate from other wastes. An estimated 2.5 million tons of such boxes
were collected and reused in 1966, amounting to 21 percent of all container
board produced that year. Ten million tons of paper were salvaged in 1966 all
told. Homes generate a large proportion of packaging wastes, but virtually
none is salvaged. Old newspapers are the only type of paper salvaged from
residential sources.
Glass can be salvaged in two ways. Returnable bottles are reused 19 times,
and the collection and recycle systems for using them are in operation. In
1966, there were 2.7 billion returnables in a total of 29.4 billion bottles. In
1976, the number will drop to 1.7 billion in a total of 45.7 billion units.
Clean, sorted, crushed glass or "cullet" is a recognized waste material
used in glass making to speed up the melting of glass sand. Cullet represents
between 10 and 15 percent of the materials used in glass making. The major
source of cullet is the waste generated within the glass plants themselves.
A few scrap dealers specialize in collecting, sorting, and cleaning glass
wastes obtained from commercial or industrial operations such as bottling
plants, dairies, and breweries.
In glass, as in virtually all other packaging materials, impurities in and
accompanying the base material are increasing. One instance is the twist-off
cap which leaves a slender ring of aluminum around the neck of the bottle.
RETURNABLE BOTTLES
ARE EEEECTIVE
WAT CE
RECYCLING GLASS
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TIN IN STEEL CANS
PREVENTS THEIR
SALVAGE
It can't be removed from the cullet by magnetic means, nor can it be washed
out. Consequently, bottles with twist-off caps must be given special handling
at extra cost.
Metals .used in packaging are seldom recovered. Steel cans—the bulk of the
metal in packaging wastes-are coated with tin. Although only about 0.5
percent of tin is present in a typical can, it creates difficulties in steel proc-
essing. Detinneries salvage some steel from the clean clippings of can
production plants. Few markets exist for scrap tin cans. They can be used in
making cheap metallic goods or in processing copper. The copper markets
are generally in'the Southwest; transporting scrap cans over long distances
is generally prohibitively expensive.
The outlook for salvaging steel cans may change, however. The can
manufacturing industry has long been vexed by sudden variations in the
price and supply of tin as a result of political instabilities in Bolivia and
Malaysia, the major sources. To avoid these fluctuations, can makers sought
and discovered a way to make tin-free steel. Today tin-free cans account
for less than 10 percent of all steel cans; by 1976, the figure may increase to
50 percent.
Markets exist for scrap aluminum packaging material, but the prices paid
are too low to maintain economically self-sustaining salvage programs. Seem-
ingly successful programs depend on some form of public subsidy, usually
in the form of free collection labor from youth groups such as Boy Scouts.
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Plastics are not now recovered from residential or commercial refuse.
Scrap dealers collect some waste from plastics processors. There appears
to be no practical way in which plastics can be economically separated from
refuse, sorted by grade, cleaned, and processed. Wood and textiles, used
predominantly in industrial packaging, are frequently reused. Wooden con-
tainers are far more repairable than other packages, which makes their con-
tinued use possible.
The Federal Government can act in a number of ways to help ease the waste
problems caused by packaging. Whatever approaches are taken, the objec-
tives should be to: reduce the quantity of packaging material used, either
by eliminating unnecessary packages or by encouraging more reuse and
recycling; reduce destruction of natural resources; or reduce the technical
difficulty involved in processing packaging wastes.
Research could be undertaken to improve materials and containers, disposal
technology, and salvage and reuse. Materials research does not offer hope
of major success in the near future. A more promising R&D approach would
be to develop new disposal technology which can handle packaging wastes
with less trouble and cost. Such research would probably be part of an overall
program encompassing all kinds of wastes. The R&D goal most worthy of
pursuit would be to develop better salvage technology. The technology to
ARE
RARELY RECYCLED
BUT WCCD AND
TEXTILES ARE
I 4 \MI I I
SOLUTIONS
IA4RRCVED SALVACE
IS WCRTHY
CCAL
-------
EDUCATIONAL
EEEORTS SHOULD BE
STRENGTHENED
INCENTIVES
AND SUBSIDIES
CAN PCCVIDE
LEVERAGE
convert virgin materials into products is highly developed, while that for
separating and recovering waste materials remains primitive and expensive.
The basic premise of educational programs is that when the disposal prob-
lems created by packaging are understood, the corrective actions required
will be taken voluntarily. In recent years, various industry groups have become
concerned with the waste problem. Taken as a whole, however, industry sup-
port of educational efforts has been nominal, being limited generally to litter
or a brief survey of the overall problem. Such voluntary efforts hold consider-
able promise and should be strengthened. The educational efforts aimed at
the consumer are important, since a widespread change in public attitudes
towards solid wastes and packaging would do much to create a favorable
environment for solving the problems. Still another educational effort should
be directed at other Federal agencies, a number of which have a direct in-
fluence on packaging.
The Federal Government's purchasing power could be used as an incentive.
Federal spending on packaging in 1966 represented nearly 6 percent of all
packaging expenditures. This leverage could be used to specify packaging
materials most suitable for disposal, salvage, or both. Such action would en-
courage technological innovation, since it would create a large market and
reduce the risk any industry faces in developing new products. The Govern-
-------
ment could, for example, spur commercialization of tin-free steel by requiring
such cans on all its purchases after a certain date or by giving them a pref-
erence in competitive bids.
The Government could also support the prices of waste materials. These
prices are highly erratic, which discourages investments in new technology
and prevents development of efficient collection systems. Tax incentives—in
the form of investment tax credits and accelerated depreciation—could be
used to encourage waste materials users and dealers to invest in new equip-
ment.
Two types of taxes could be imposed—a use tax on all packages, or a deterrent
type tax imposed selectively on specific materials. The use tax would not
directly reduce use of packaging materials, but it would provide the economic
wherewithal for processing the wastes. A use tax would be imposed on the
finished container, the amount depending on the resistance of the container
to disposal.
Such a concept has several advantages over a deterrent type tax:
Q It would be less discriminatory, for it would be applied to all packages.
G It would be less likely to disturb free materials selection by packagers.
D It could spur reuse of containers and recycling of materials,
However, it also has some potential disadvantages:
G It would need an elaborate machinery to administer efficiently.
USE TAXES AND
DETEEEENT TAXES
CAN CE IA4I t %ri
-------
REGULATION
IS MOST
EFFECTIVE
TOOL
D The consumer may be charged twice for disposal—when he buys the
package and when he pays for his trash collection bill.
G The tax may be viewed as a "license to pollute" and cause more litter.
The deterrent tax singles out materials and configurations on the basfs
of disposal criteria. Its basic problem is that it is discriminatory. Also, de-
terrent taxes vary widely in their effectiveness. If the aim is to eliminate or
substantially curb consumption of a material, the tax would have to be high
enough to affect applications where the price of the package is not the
dominant consideration. Such a tax would, in effect, price the material out
of the packaging market and would be a form of indirect regulation.
The most effective way of mitigating the waste disposal problems created
by packaging materials is regulation. The problems are primarily economic,
however, and in an economy based on the concept of free enterprise, there
might be considerable opposition to government intervention in matters that
are largely economic. The Government has confined its regulation of com-
merce largely to consumer protection from health and safety hazards and
deceptive practices, protection of free competition, and the like. In addition,
given the tremendously complex nature of packaging, effective regulation
would require activities on so many fronts, that the cost appears to be po-
tentially greater than the benefits envisioned.
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HIS SUMMARY REPORT is based on The Role of Packaging in
Solid Waste Management, 1966 to 1976, by Arsen Darnay and
William E. Franklin. The full report, Public Health Service Publica-
tion No. 1855 (Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 76-601197),
is available from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Print-
ing Office, Washington, D.C. 204C2. Price is $2.25 in paper cover. The 205-page
publication includes 120 tables, 31 figures, and two appendices. It consists
of these major sections:
Summary
The Outlook for Packaging, 1966 to 1976
The Disposability of Packaging Materials
Mechanisms for Mitigating Problems Caused by Packaging
Materials in Waste Disposal
Bibliography
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