The Impact Of Packaging On The Climate Refugee

The Impact Of Packaging On The Climate Refugee

Yip Yin Ching Zoe

//Introduction

In the past decade, climate change has hit hard on most of the countries across the world, making some places not habitable for their natives (McAdam 2012 p.39). For instance, climate change has caused drought in some areas such as North Africa, making it hard for the natives to practice farming. In response to the disaster, such people tend to flee to other places to practice their economic activity there, for instance, sides such as the eastern and southern parts of Africa and other parts of the world as well (McAdam 2012 p.47). This condition has caused the incidences of climate change refugees in such countries. Every year since 2008, more than 26 million people are usually forced to flee their places of residence following severe climatic changes such as flooding, hurricanes, and droughts (Hansenet al.2012 p.E2416). Therefore, the climate refugees can be described as the people who have been forced to flee their homes as a result of adverse environmental factors that have been contributed by the climate changes as well as natural disasters (McAdam, 2012, p.40).

There has been an extensive burning of fossil fuels and other materials that have contributed significantly to the emission of greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere posing a challenge to some of the most crucial communities on the globe (Bessouet al., 2011, p. 367). The extensive use of the products that emit greenhouse gases has put most of the countries in a challenge to protect their most essential communities

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The Impact Of Packaging On The Climate Refugee

against the adverse impacts of climate change. As this has proven to always be an impossible endeavor for most of the countries, especially in the developing world, most victims of climate change have been rendered homeless turning into refugees (McAdam 2012 p.54). For instance, the Global South, which is mostly affected by the sea-level rises, causing flooding, has not been controllable (Bessouet al. 2011 P.370). The severity of the climate change factors is increasing very much to the point where the human homelands are becoming inhabitable, forcing them to resettle to much better places. This nature induced resettlement leads to climate change refugees.

Across the globe, human rights and humanitarian law does not provide concrete protection of the people displaced as a result of climate change (Janjarasskuland Krochta2010 p.417).

However, there is a protection given to the international short term disaster immigrants, which is provided by the humanitarian visas and the other measures provided by individual states (Janjarasskul and Krochta, 2010 p.416). As this is not sufficient to protect the climate refugees, the appropriate steps to combat climate changes are in handy for the protection of such individuals. One of the significant causes of climate change and hence the climate refugee is the packaging.

Packages are arguably accounting for approximately 5% of the energy that is used in the food product making life cycle

(Pongrรกcz, 2007, p.237). It makes the packaging a greatsource of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. More also, in some of the products, the packaging has a significant impact on climate change as a result of the greenhouse gas emission. The packaging is creating an unhealthy environment for the climate refugees, even more than the average fossil fuel gas emission on the environment. There are multiple impacts of the packaging on the climate change that is traversed to the climate refugee.

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The Impact Of Packaging On The Climate Refugee

// Greenhouse Gas Emission & Climate Change There is an excellent level of greenhouse gas emissions occurring in every stage of the packaging productions from the time of their production to the disposal period. This is as reviews by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) (Pongrรกcz, 2007, p.237). As per CIEL, the accelerating growth of industrialization across the countries is not only destroying the environment as well as being a danger to human life but also making it hard to control the carbon emissions and hence the prevention of climate change (Change2014 np). Moreover, there is a high expectation for the climatic impacts brought about by packaging to increase shortly if appropriate measures to combat them are not

put in place (Lรถhret al. 2017 p.91). This is poised to happen in the coming decades if the current activities in the industrialization remain unchanged. CIEL study reinstates that the actual packaging impacts on the climate might exceed the projected assumptions and expectations soon (Change2014 np). This means more greenhouse emissions into the atmosphere, which translates to adverse climatic conditions in some places and hence more climatic refugees.

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// Greenhouse Gas Emission & Climate Change

//////// The plastic currently in the environment is very disruptive to the ocean. The CIEL identifies that the plastic presently discarded can disrupt the natural ability of the oceans to absorb the carbon dioxide (Schwarzenbachet al., 2010, p.112). The plastic material harms oceans bacteria, which is responsible for approximately 10 percent of the oxygen found on the earth. The oxygen within the earth's atmosphere is very much usable in respiration, which is the energy powering the metabolism on the living organisms (Schwarzenbachet, al., 2010, p.110). Most of the creatures need oxygen on the stratosphere to breathe, and in return, they emit carbon dioxide.

A reduction in the percentage of oxygen within the earth's atmosphere would, therefore, mean there is more carbon dioxide emission on the environment.

Carbon dioxide contributes to air pollution within the atmosphere as it plays a significant role in the greenhouse effect (Change, 2014 np).

As there is a reduction of oxygen and more carbon dioxide on the atmosphere, the carbon dioxide prevents the radiations at the ground level, which leads to the production of ground-level ozone. As a result of this, the earth is prevented from cooling,

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especially at nights (Hartmann2010 p.300). This hence translates to extreme temperatures within the earth's atmosphere.

Another effective adverse effect of the excess carbon dioxide on the atmosphere as a result of the packaging is adverse climate change characterized by extreme temperatures. Over the past decade, earth temperatures have significantly risen as per the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) (Ullah 2012 p.60). The carbon dioxide is arguably the primary contribution of his climatic impact. In addition to the increase in the earth temperatures, the ocean levels are noted to have risen in the past decade (Reddy 2011 np). Arguably, these two impacts of the carbon dioxide keep on increasing the number of climate refugees as excess temperatures reduce the amount of rain on the earth, negatively impacting the farming activities. At the same time, a rise in the ocean levels brings about flooding. In essence, the number of climate change refugees is projected to increase more soon as this trend is on the rise daily.

The Impact Of Packaging On The Climate Refugee

Refugee // Health.

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There are also emissions by the industries that produce the packaging lead to acidic rain.

Bearing in mind that most of the sectors responsible for the production of these packing use fossil fueldriven machines, the emission from those machines usually combines with the moisture within the air, which results in the rains containing very high acid content (Change 2014 np). This acidic rain does not only have damage to the trees and plants' life, but there is also water and soil pollution, which equally translates to the negative impacts on human life (Farbotko and Lazrus, 2012, p.390). This is basically because people consume such water in spanning ways, including but not limited to drinking and sanitation. On a lighter note, the acidic content on the soil is also responsible for the lower production in farming, which translates to famine on the people, including

the refugees (Farbotko and Lazrus, 2012, p.384). This impacts the carbon dioxide emission can be felt in distant places, which makes it very much dangerous across the globe.

The excess carbon dioxide also impacts human health on the atmosphere through its relentless displacement of oxygen from the atmosphere (Ullah, 2012, p.56). In this case, breathing becomes much difficult when the levels of carbon dioxide rise. This can lead to breathing complications and diseases. Some of the health complaints that excess carbon intake can have on people are headache and lung complications (Hansenet al.2012 p.E2417). It is therefore worth noting this can affect all the people, including the climate refugees.

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Environmental Impacts. Farbotk

nvironmental

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nvironmental mpacts. Farbotko

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The environment is arguably the dwelling place for any living organism (Montzkaet al.2011 p.43). When the environment is also polluted, living organisms suffer as well. However, it is the same environment that is responsible for the production of such materials (Janjarasskul and Krochta, 2010, p.430). The consumable materials are all extracted from the environment. The need for packaging of products came in handy because the production of the products and the consumption of the same products takes place in a different climate (Schwarzenbach, et al. .,2010 p.115). For instance, a food company in the urban must ensure that the food material is appropriately packaged to reach the people within the outskirts of the urban as well as those within the rural locations. At the same time, packaging takes place because the production time is usually a different time from the time of the product consumption (Schwarzenbach et al., 2010 p.124). Therefore, there is a need for the product to be packaged to enhance its storage for future use. Hence, packing is arguably the best link that connects the production and consumption of food materials.

Approximately 160,000 people are moving to the urban dwelling in the developing world (Reddy2011 np). It is projected that around one decade, the world population in towns will be at most the two thirds from the one third that it stands as today (Reddy 2011 np). With such large numbers of people in the urban civilizations, the distribution of food materials will be very crucial, meaning that the packaging will increase, and consumption also increases.

The packaging is not always noticed during the purchase of the product or the distribution of the product. It is usually seen when the product has already been consumed (Reddy, 2011, np).The packaging that held the already

The Impact Of Packaging On The Climate Refugee

Environmental Impacts. Farbotk

mpacts. Farbotko

There are both positive and negative impacts of the packaging on the environments depending on the means of production and deposition of the packaging products (Schwarzenbach et al., 2010, p.120). The negative impacts include the use of resources during the production of the packaging and the effects brought about by the packaging wastes as well as the emissions to the environment (Montzka et al., 2011, p.44). The positive impact of the packing on the environment is the fact that the packaging helps the producer to consumer distribution on the good (Montzka et al. 2011 p.45). Hence, conscious packaging usually leads to consumer satisfaction if effectively carried on. As the climate refugees are also prone to need for food material consumption, this might be of great importance to them. The food products delivered to them must be packaged properly at their place or production, and appropriate disposal of the packaging should be well defined to help them. In most countries with a high number of refugees, usually the developed world, the appropriate packaging is amounting to approximately two-thirds of all the packaging within the companies (Hansen et al. 2012 p.E2417). Therefore, all the impacts of the packaging in these countries can be balanced by appropriate manufacturing and disposal of the packaging materials.

Another significant way in which packaging helps in the protection of the environment and hence of importance to the climate refugee is that it is very functional on the waste reduction (Vallero2014 np). In the first place, the packaging helps in keeping the food material safe from spoiling and having to be discarded.

In this case, the refugees do not consume spoiled food that would adversely affect their health. For instance, in developed countries like the United Kingdom, where packaging is well defined, the proportion of the food materials that are unfit for consumption before they reach the consumer is usually less than 2 percent (Vallero, 2014 np). However, in other less developed countries with a lower level of packaging, such a proportion might be as high as 40 percent. Therefore, to protect those people who consume packaged products, appropriate packaging measures must be put in place. The other positive impact of packaging on the environment is the ability of the food materials to be produced much more efficiently (Montzkaet al.2011 p.44). For instance, in the past 70 years, people were forced to go to the butchery to purchase food products like chicken.

The butcher would sell more than 1000 chicken to the consumers and was forced to throw the feathers which polluted the environment.

However, in the current world, the chicken is usually packaged properly and sent to the market near the consumer. At the same time, the byproducts like the feathers are processed to other materials such as animal feed or fertilizer, packaged appropriately, and sent to the market for purchase (The Climate Collaborative, 2020). Arguably, it only takes around 8 kg for the packaging of the consumable parts of the chicken parts for the 1000 kgs while saving more than the 750 kgs of non-consumable and byproducts parts of the chicken. Therefore, as appropriate packaging techniques are used, food waste decreases as well as making the food production efficient. One percent of the increase in necessary packaging, leading to a decrease of about 1.7 percent of the food material waste, translates to an efficient production environment wise (The Climate Collaborative, 2020 np).

nvironmental mpacts. Farbotko

consumed material is generally realized. The disposal of the packaging has usually been a challenge to the environment.

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//////// Different packaging materials have impacts on the environment in different ways. Most of the materials used for the packing include paper, metal, glass, steel, aluminum, and plastics (Lรถhr et al. 2017).

A combination of these materials can as well be used in the packaging of products.

The paper packages are usually used in the form of boxes or cartons. The use of paper-based packagings such as boxes and cartons is safe for the environment as the paper cartons are recyclable at the rates of 100% (Hansenet al. 2012, p.E220). The materials can be used in the manufacture of other packaging materials. It can hence be argued that the carton packaging is relatively safe for the environment.

However, this kind of paper materials also impact the environment negatively as the raw materials for their production is usually wood. Cutting down trees has adverse effects on the destruction of the ecosystem, which generally leads to an adverse climatic change (Hansenet al.

2012, p.E220). Therefore, if the paper packaging is on continued, production and forests are not properly maintained, there is a high possibility of forest destruction. The destruction of the forest cover will then reflect drought, which will make the habitation of the climate refugees much harder as there might be a shortage of food products (Pongrรกcz, 2007, p.237). At

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the same time, since the plantation cover leads to consuming most of the carbon dioxide on the environment, its reduction as a result of this packing production would lead to excess carbon dioxide on the atmosphere leading to the complications explained above. Glass is another material that is extensively used in the packaging of products.

The Impact Of Packaging On The Climate Refugee

Glass is usually produced through the thermal fusion of some naturally occurring materials such as sand, soda ash, and limestone (Pongrรกcz, 2007, p.237). These materials are exhaustible. Other than being exhaustible, limestone leave behind holes that might be breeding sites for mosquitoes after rains contributing to a health hazard.

On the other hand, sand can slowly drain rivers of their water as some rivers, especially the seasonal one, store most of their useful water within the sand (Janjarasskul and Krochta, 2010, p.434). On the same note, excessive extraction of sand from the rivers can contribute to challenges such as flooding around the rivers. This does not only negatively impact the climatic refugees but also other people. The collection of soda ash is costly, as it is relatively rare on the earth's crust. In such a case, money that could be used in the protection of climate change refugees is sometimes spent on the collection of such materials (Janjarasskuland Krochta, 2010, p.42). This makes their lives even hard.

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Glass is a material that cannot decompose quickly.

Therefore, appropriate disposal measures must be followed for the glass packaging. The glass materials disposed on the ground are usually prone to clogging the soil, and by doing so, the soil aeration is reduced, and plant cover is at risk (Hartmann, 2010, p.233). At the same time, the glass is the material that has the lowest level of recycling, but the packaging can be highly reused for other purposes or still for the same use.

An example is the coca-cola glass bottles, which are usually reused. When the glass package breaks down, then there is a need for an appropriate disposal measure, or else the environment stands at risk, which will then translate to climate change.

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The Impact Of Packaging On The Climate Refugee

Plastic is another material that is mostly used in packaging. The plastics are usually macromolecular polymeric materials. Most of the plastics used in the packaging are made from carbon that has only carbon to carbon bonds (Change, 2014 np). The plastics mostly used for the packaging are usually in the form of foils and sheets. There is a substantial role of the plastics in the packaging as their weight is meager since most of the time, they amount to weights of less than 20 percent of the total material product in distributions (Hartmann, 2010, p.235). As compared to the glass, which takes most of the weigh when used in packaging the amount of the plastic to very little weight in the overall product in distribution, which is an added advantage (Change, 2014 np). Although they can positively impact the productions of products, the plastics have their well-defined drawbacks on the environment. For instance, the plastics have a negative image on the environment as they contain fossil content within themselves (Farbotko and Lazrus 2012 p.384). Having

high fossil content makes the disposal of the materials hard as being disposed of on the ground would mean a reduction of clogging, and burning them leads to emission of greenhouse gasses on the atmosphere, which is harmful and can lead to adverse climatic change. As mentioned above, the adverse climatic change will lead to more climatic refugees, which soon might make the number unmanageable.

Although the plastics are a hazard for the environment, there has been the production of degradable plastics that can still go back to the carbon cycle through the bond scission in their backbone of the polymer via a chemical or biochemical reaction (Vallero, 2014 np). The production of packaging with the degradable and biodegradable plastics is a commendable move towards environmental conservation (Vallero, 2014 np). This has a positive impact on the refugees as they get the help they need properly packaged, and it does not cause further climatic hazards.

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The Impact Of Packaging On The Climate Refugee

Environmentally, packaging promotes almost all types of environmental pollution. This spans from the water, air, litter, and solid waste pollution (Schwarzenbach et al., 2010, p.126).

The litter pollution usually involves the widespread litter on the environment. It is generally not pleasant to the eyesight and can be very much hazardous to animal life, and it also can contribute to hazards in human life (McAdam, 2012, p.40). Litter pollution is usually contributed by uncontrolled disposal of the packaging materials such as the glass and the plastic bottles, the cans as well as papers (Abu-Hilaland Al-Najjar, 2004). When they are uncontrollably disposed to the environment, they constitute the litter pollution. There is grueling of the damping of the packaging materials on the marine environment. The littered materials are of can adversely affect aquatic life. This, coupled with the other effects of the litter pollution, can spell to adverse conditions on the climate refugees, mostly hardening their lives.

The waste-water emission usually causes water pollution to water sources such as rivers, lakes, or even the oceans and seas (Pongrรกcz, 2007, p.237). This mostly occurs during the manufacturing of the packaging materials.

Some of the significant factors for the water pollution during the production of these materials include the emission of the Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), volatile suspended solids (VSS), and the chemical oxygen demand (COD) (Pongrรกcz 2007 p.237). There can also be accidental water pollution via accidental emission during the production of the packaging materials. The consequences of water pollution on the environment as well as human life are very much clear. Still, they are not limited to diseases such as cholera and

typhoid, disruption of the food chain, the death of the animals in the water, and the destruction of the ecosystem (Schwarzenbach et al., 2010, p.128). Overly, this translates to the hardships on the lives of climate change refugees. When the aquatic life is killed, they might be left deficient of food, and when they disease as a result of the water pollution will be affecting their body activities as well as their overall functionality.

The solid waste material is the pollution caused by solid waste during the extraction as well as the processing of the raw materials into the packaging (Pongrรกcz, 2007, p.237). Usually, these wastes end up within the landfill sites.

Then the pre-consumer and the post-consumer wastes are determined then the post-consumer wastes are used as part of the packaging production (Schwarzenbach et al. 2010, p.128). Although most of the post-consumer wastes are recycled, it is worth noting that not all the post-consumer wastes are recycled.

Also, recycled products, most of the time, end up being solid waste too. There is also, and indirect packaging related to solid waste materials such as slag used for the production of electricity during the activates of packaging (Reddy 2011 np). These materials constitute a solid waste. The solid waste materials constitute the destruction of the porousness of the soil bringing down the aeration. This makes activities such as farming hard to be carried out as well as the destruction of the ecosystem. In essence, if the climate refugees are carrying on any productive farming in their current places of residence and are confronted by this kind of pollution, it will turn hard for them to do any productive agriculture, translating to food shortage.

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The Impact Of Packaging On The Climate Refugee

As seen above, there are significant impacts of the packaging on climate refugees. Since there are more negative impacts as compared to the positive impacts, it is clear that there is a need for the companies involved in the production of the packaging materials to commit solving climate change due to the packaging as well as other hazards included in this packaging. The companies need to implement stringent strategies aimed at reducing the emission of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.

This should be done to the most considerable degree possible. Various ways can be used in the reduction of the climatic impacts of packaging. For instance, through replacement of the raw materials with the post-recycled materials, the replacement of the traditional plastics made using fossil fuels with the biopolymers which are biodegradable and redesign of the elements to reduce the greenhouse gases emitted during the transportation and storage of the packaging (Reddy, 2011 np).

The adoption of such steps would be a great deal towards the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions as well as other ways of the pollution brought about by the packaging.

Also, consumer prevalence can be used in coming up with packaging decisions. How consumers discard different packaging materials can determine the nature of the packaging best to be used for particular consumers. For instance, when the consumers have the habit of dumping the packaging, it would be commendable to use a biodegradable packaging material that would not pollute the soil, water, or turn to be a litter in the pins. Consumers should also be told on the appropriate methodologies of carrying the waste disposal after using the products. This is a more significant move towards the reduction of the negative impacts of the packaging on climate change refugees.

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//Conclusion 17

The effects of the packing on the climate change refugees are far-reaching and span from the possible climatic change forcing the refugees to live inhabitable lives to living with potential pollution on the environment and possible diseases. However, packaging still has positive impacts on the refugees as they are the safest ways through which the refugees get their food in safe mode. The negative impacts of the packaging on the climate refugees are highly controllable if only appropriate measures are put in practice.

Such measures include the nature of the extraction of the raw materials for packaging, the recycling of the post-consumer packaging materials, the protections against harmful emission, and appropriate disposable of the packaging materials. It is notably evident that packaging is an essential activity that has proven to be useful in the usability of the materials that would have been considered a waste as they are not consumable. Moreover, it is the safest way of distributing food materials. In this case, a lot of care is needed for the protection of the environment as well as the climate change refugees regarding the packaging materials.

The Impact Of Packaging On The Climate Refugee

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