Discarded packaging

Modern science and industry have provided a growing supply of material products. When they reach the end of their useful life, they become solid waste, and disposing of it has become a growing problem. Worst of all is over-packaging to stimulate sales, so discarded packaging is the major contributor to this solid waste. Plastics are not the major component of solid waste but because of their low density, bright colors, and relative weather-resistance, they are the most obvious component. It would be desirable to remove them from solid waste by recycling. 

In the United Kingdom in the 1975 to 1995 period, although the volume of discarded packaging materials in the domestic waste bins has risen, but the weight remained approximately the same. Most probably, this is due to lightweighting... 

Fuel is found in the construction industry in many forms petrol and paraffin for portable generators and heaters bottled gas for heating and soldering. Most solvents are flammable. Rubbish also represents a source of fuel offcuts of wood, roofing felt, rags, empty solvent cans and discarded packaging will all provide fuel for a fire. 

Of course, not all packaging reduction innovations meet with consumer success, and what is successful in one country may not be so in another. DuPont Canada estimated in 1990 that switching from HDPE gallon bottles for milk to twin-pack 2-quart LLDPE pouches could reduce the weight of discarded packaging by 58%. They further calculated that replacement of the mix of then-current milk packaging by pouches could reduce the landfill volume of discarded milk packaging by nearly 93% [17]. While such pouches have enjoyed some success in Ontario (where there is a deposit on HDPE milk bottles but not on pouches), they have not met much success in the United States. 

Due to the influence of environmental considerations, plastics recycling is a growing economic activity. The need to open up new channels for discarded packaging has stimulated the recycling of plastics to produce new packaging materials. Such technical processes are being developed for the most widely used polymers polyolefins, polystyrene (PS), polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and PET. 

The concept of degradable polymers arose largely from concern about the large quantities of plastics materials used for packaging and which, having fulfilled their function, were then discarded and unwanted. Interest has, however, now moved on to include medical and related applications. 

This stability is important to plastics longterm performance. However, for some applications only short-term performance is desired before the product is discarded, as in the fast-food and packaging markets. In such cases it is considered advantageous for discarded plastic to degrade when exposed to microbes. There thus exists a requirement to develop or modify plastics possessing the properties required for their service life, but with the capability of degrading in a timely... 

It is instructive to consider the sources of plastics waste. Table 11.1 shows the types of plastics and their use in packaging, whilst Table 11.2 shows the proportion of waste classified by end use. This shows how significant packaging is in generating waste, and causing environmental problems. Applications such as furniture and electrical appliances show more acceptable use of polymers, because discard rates are low and lifetimes of the products are generally long. 

Packaging waste is normally recovered from one of two sources. The first is the waste which is not used by the converter (i.e. the maker of the package) and the second is from the packages which are discarded at the point of sale. The former is relatively free of contaminates whereas the latter may contain adhesives, plastics, staples and other contraries . Many countries, including the UK, have developed very efficient collection and recovery systems for packaging material from wholesale and retail outlets. For example in 1991, the Japanese were recovering almost 70% of corrugated containers from this source. 

Preparation Do not shake. Do not dilute. Do not administer darbepoetin in conjunction with other drug solutions. Darbepoetin is packaged in single-use vials and contains no preservatives. Discard any unused portion. Do not pool unused portions. 

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