Paper or Plastic: Searching for Solutions to an Overpackaged World

Imhoff, Daniel

ISBN 10: 1578051177 / ISBN 13: 9781578051175

Published by Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, CA, 2005

About this Item

Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 168 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. No previous owner's name SC 115.

Seller Inventory # Alibris.0022163

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Paper or Plastic: Searching for Solutions to an Overpackaged World
• Publisher: Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, CA
• Publication Date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1578051177
• ISBN 13: 9781578051175
• Binding: Trade paperback
• Condition: Fine.

About this title

Synopsis

The deceptively simple supermarket choice echoed in the title symbolizes the dilemma of a society on a collision course with the planet's life-support systems. Do we clearcut forests, process pulp, and bleach it with chlorine to make paper bags? Or do we make a pact with demon hydrocarbon, refining ancient sunlight into handy plastics? About half the total volume of America's municipal solid waste is packaging--at least 300 pounds per person each year--and the "upstream" costs in energy and resources used to make packaging are even more alarming.
In this fascinating look at the world of packaging, writer Daniel Imhoff and photographer/designer Roberto Carra give consumers, product designers, and policymakers the information we need to take steps toward a more sustainable future. They delve into the histories and life cycles of packaging materials and look at the countless ways that packaged goods shape our culture. Using case studies, they explore the positive trends that are changing packaging, including producer responsibility and "take-back" laws being enacted in Europe; the eco-design movement; plant-based plastics; labeling to disclose the ecological and social impacts of products; and producing and consuming locally and in bulk versus the wasteful global exchange of single-serving containers. Carra's remarkable color photographs illustrate both the important functions of packaging and its many unintended consequences around the globe.
Despite recent advances, the packaging problem keeps growing, Imhoff warns. Real solutions must incorporate new (or rediscovered) ways of producing, distributing, packaging, consuming, reusing, and reprocessing products and materials. As consumers, there's much we can do, and Paper or Plastic offers a checklist for consumer action, along with resources for information on products, programs, and policy options. It's one book that is truly worth the recycled paper it's printed on.

From the Inside Flap

"Pull the right thread and the whole world unravels its secrets. Dan Imhoff has found a terrific one in the packaging of industrial civilization, everpresent yet invisible, and, in his capable hands, endlessly fascinating."--Michael Pollan