{"id":41761,"date":"2024-11-17T07:23:41","date_gmt":"2024-11-17T07:23:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medisana.asia\/au\/plastic-packaging-2\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T08:12:56","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T08:12:56","slug":"plastic-packaging-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medisana.asia\/au\/zh\/plastic-packaging-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Plastic Packaging"},"content":{"rendered":"Most of the food we buy is packaged, but as environmental awareness grows, consumers are increasingly turning away from plastic packaging. Mountains of plastic are harming wildlife and the environment, and more and more people are distressed by it.\n\nAlthough there is growing awareness of the effects of plastic on the environment and our health, we are experiencing a boom in plastic production and this trend will continue in the future. They talk of a plastic industry that is out of control. The health consequences for humans remain hidden.\n

Plastic mountains all over the world<\/strong><\/h3>\nIn 2018, around 359 million tonnes of plastic were produced worldwide \u2013 around 19 million tonnes in Germany. Much of it ends up as packaging for food in supermarkets.<\/strong>\n\nThe high level of plastic production inherently generates a lot of plastic waste. In Europe alone, there were over\u00a029 million tonnes of plastic waste\u00a0in 2018, reports the\u00a0statistics portal \u201cStatista\u201d.\n\nThe tragic thing is that almost 80 percent of all marine waste consists of plastic that has ended up in the oceans via rivers. Here is an example: a plastic bag can take up to 20 years to completely decompose in the sea.\n\nA PET bottle takes almost 450 years\u00a0<\/strong>to decompose in water and sink to the seabed in the form of microplastics. In 1978 Coca-Cola decided to replace the legendary glass bottle with plastic bottles, which could be described as the beginning of the end.\n\nMore than\u00a0500 billion plastic bottles\u00a0are sold worldwide every year. In 2016, over 1 million plastic bottles were sold every minute. Only 7 percent of them were reused through recycling. These giant mountains of plastic end up in landfills or in the ocean.\n\nIn Germany,\u00a016.4 billion disposable plastic bottles\u00a0are used annually, which corresponds to a good\u00a0500,000 tonnes of waste. According to the Plastic Atlas 2019,\u00a0every German citizen\u00a0produces around 38 kilogrammes of plastic waste per year. In a European comparison, this puts Germany in the top group.\n

Throw-away mentality \u2013 waste for the world<\/strong><\/h3>\nBack in the 1950s, people still used plastic with as much care as glass or silk. Then consumer goods companies discovered the material\u2019s advantages and humans developed a lifestyle that incessantly produces waste,\u00a0writes the Heinrich B\u00f6ll Foundation.\n\nUnfortunately, public\u00a0perception of plastic\u00a0is almost exclusively limited to plastic bags and plastic bottles. In contrast,\u00a0food packaging made of plastic\u00a0is hardly mentioned. The\u00a0food industry\u00a0is one of the largest buyers of plastics. They want their products to be nicely packaged and meet the needs of consumers.\n

Plastic in the food chain<\/h3>\nThe price:\u00a0plastic also ends up in the fields\u00a0and makes its way into\u00a0food\u00a0and thus into the\u00a0food chain. In addition, according to the German Consumer Advice Centre (Verbraucherzentrale<\/em>), pollutants from packaging can migrate into food. The only exception is glass.\n\nMost groceries in the supermarket are packaged, which in itself doesn\u2019t have to be bad. Packaging provides protection against external influences and extends the shelf life of goods. It also makes it easier for manufacturers to transport and store food products.\n

Pollutants in food<\/strong><\/h3>\nUnfortunately, pollutants can get into food, and the packaging is often unnecessary. Do fruit and vegetables really need to be packaged in plastic wrap?\n\nPre-prepared salads in small plastic bowls, cucumbers in plastic wrap, pasta in plastic bags, minced meat, sausage products, cheese, etc.: everything is packed in plastic. But does it really need to be? Can\u2019t these products also be sold from the fresh food counter with less plastic packaging? Not to mention the millions of\u00a0plastic yogurt pots. Plastic should not come into contact with agricultural products that end up on our plates.\n\nIf ingredients from the packaging pass into a foodstuff,\u00a0this is known as migration. The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (Bundesinstitut f\u00fcr Risikobewertung<\/em>, BfR) specifies the permitted maximum quantities and limit values for migration into food. It would be better, however, if migration from packaging to food was not permitted at all. Therefore, it is better to\u00a0shop with a critical eye.\n

Convenience is the magic word<\/strong><\/h3>\nThese days, it is impossible to imagine the European food industry without plastic. Even worse: the use of plastic in the food sector is increasing in all countries. This is one consequence of marketing: away from farmers\u2019 markets, towards supermarkets.\n\nThe food industry has changed fundamentally across Europe.\u00a0The magic word today is convenience.\u00a0 You can read about this on Wikipedia: convenience food is food that is commercially prepared to optimise\u00a0ease of consumption.\n\nThe\u00a02019 Nutrition Report\u00a0shows that 48 percent of respondents believe that being able to prepare meals quickly and easily is important. And the food industry is responding by offering an increasing number of ready meals \u2013 often wrapped in plastic.\n\nAnd the trend is increasing: for example, 75 percent of German households are composed of one or two people. As a result portions are getting smaller and smaller, plus supermarkets are offering solo portions, with the result that more and more plastic is being put into circulation. Few people think about the effect on their health. In 2018, more than\u00a01.13 trillion items of packaging\u00a0were used for food and beverages. The most important and commonly used packaging material was:\u00a0plastic.\n

This leads to another problem: adhesives<\/strong><\/h3>\nThe German Consumer Advice Centre (Verbraucherzentrale<\/em>) points out:\u00a0\u201cMost packaging and other materials that come into contact with food are made using adhesives. The formulas are often very complex and contain numerous individual components. Each formula consists of up to 15 components, whereby several hundred substances can be used in the manufacture of adhesives\u201d.\n\nAnd further: \u201cAdhesives play a particularly important role in resealable packaging \u2013\u00a0for example, for meat and sausage products and sliced cheese. Resealable packaging allows more substances to migrate into the food than non-resealable packaging of a comparable type\u201d.\n\nAnother danger is bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical which disrupts our hormonal systems.\u00a0BPA has a similar effect to the female hormone oestrogen and influences the endocrine system. Even small amounts of BPA can have an oestrogen-like effect and are significantly hazardous to health.\n

There is hope<\/strong><\/h3>\nBut apparently there is hope: there is a growing awareness that unpackaged food is better\u00a0for the environment and for our health. Consumer pressure is growing on the food and consumer goods industries to become more environmentally conscious.\n\nShops offering unpackaged food are opening up in an increasing number of European cities. According to a representative survey from 2017,\u00a060 percent of Germans, as well as\u00a0almost every other European country, support this trend. In the future, consumers will measure brands by their commitment to people and nature.\n\nThe question posed at the beginning of this article about whether it is better to buy unpackaged food has definitely been answered. In supermarkets, you should always buy\u00a0meat and cheese\u00a0from the\u00a0fresh food counter. You can get unpackaged fruit and vegetables at weekly markets, in farm and organic shops or in local corner shops.\n\nIf there is no better alternative, you can almost always buy supermarket groceries in cardboard packaging or \u2013 even better \u2013 in jars. Cans, on the other hand, should definitely be avoided. The inner surface of the can is completely or partially coated with a thin film of epoxy plastic, which often contains bisphenol-A (BPA), a substance that can migrate into the food.\n\nIf possible, avoid plastic packaging when shopping and consistently avoid plastic in your everyday life! Click here for some valuable\u00a0tips from the German Consumer Advice Centre on avoiding plastic<\/a>\u00a0in your everyday life.\n\nSources:\nERN\u00c4HRUNG \u2013 EIN UNAPPETITLICHER KREISLAUF<\/em>\u00a0(NUTRITION \u2013 AN UNAPPETISING CYCLE) by Christine Chemnitz and Christian Rehmer, p. 20\n\nBundesinstitut f\u00fcr Risikobewertung<\/em>\u00a0(German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment:\u00a0Mikroplastik\u00a0<\/em>(Microplastics), representative population survey, Germany, January 22, 2019, p. 3","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most of the food we buy is packaged, but as environmental awareness grows, consumers are increasingly turning away from plastic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41762,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[146],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-fitness"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medisana.asia\/au\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medisana.asia\/au\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medisana.asia\/au\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medisana.asia\/au\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medisana.asia\/au\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41761"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/medisana.asia\/au\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41776,"href":"https:\/\/medisana.asia\/au\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41761\/revisions\/41776"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medisana.asia\/au\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medisana.asia\/au\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medisana.asia\/au\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medisana.asia\/au\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}