Those bottles have a reason to exist for maybe two years , and yet they will stay on our planet for 500 years . Most plastics used for packaging have a lifespan of 500 years , yet the product it contains has a much shorter lifespan . For example , fruit or vegetables that are wrapped in plastic . You have to recycle plastic many , many times over so the question is : how can we develop more sustainable packaging that can be recycled with the product when it comes to end of life ? Is it really necessary to wrap plastic around a cucumber ?” explains Berkenbosch .
Speaking of the future of sustainability and the kind of education required , Berkenbosch adds : “ To make things move forward , we need to focus more on the long term . From the perspective of the packaging industry , reusing and recycling is great , but the fundamental problem is the lifetime the packaging has in comparison to the product . This needs to be considered .”
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