Sustainable Packaging: Understanding material health

Material health: A key approach for sustainable design.

Anne Johnson of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition -- Packaging Digest, 1/1/2007

My introduction to chemistry started early. As a child, I trailed my father through the woods of the Hubbard Brook experimental forest, helping collect water samples from pristine streams. Later, we would process the samples in his lab to measure the pH, the nitrates and the aluminum that would later be recognized as the calling cards of acid rain. Once scientists started thinking about the chemistry of coal combustion and applied the "rules" of chemistry, it was a straightforward application of science and chemistry to understand the interactions of acid rain with local geology and all the other related biogeochemistry changes that have been observed. Acid rain is now recognized as a significant industrial impact affecting the chemistry of natural systems.

The acid rain example illustrates the prototype scenario for end-of-pipe solutions: Discover a problem, measure it and then figure out how to control it. Control in this case involved the Clean Air Act and the subsequent installation of control technologies on coal-burning combustion facilities. Today, the accumulation of substances of concern in humans and the environment and the increasing degradation of natural systems provides clear evidence that the end-of-pipe approach is slow, noncomprehensive and expensive—and, all too often, the damage is already done. Sustainability for the future suggests we need to go about thinking about the application of chemistry differently.

We have been slow to extend chemistry-based thinking to evaluate how materials themselves may impact human health and the environment.

Outside of science and academia, we have been slow to extend chemistry-based thinking to evaluate how materials themselves may impact human health and the environment. We tend to focus on the chemistry of materials only in terms of their performance, cost and esthetic rather than using our knowledge of chemistry for the purpose of pollution prevention. Green chemistry is an evolving science that hopes to do just this for materials and processes; sustainable design aims to do the same for products and packaging.

Material health is a term that we coined at GreenBlue to describe the science of understanding the human health and environmental impacts of a material at any point in its life cycle—from its inputs through its use and extending to all possible end-of-life scenarios. Material health focuses solely on the chemistry of a material itself; it is distinct from "Clean Production," a broader term that encompasses the direct and indirect processes of how materials are made. When we evaluate the material health of a material, we look at the toxicity of inputs, including any additives or fillers, and ask a series of questions. Do any of the inputs to this material pose a threat to human health or the environment? Are they carcinogenic or acute aquatic toxicants?

Once a material is made, we ask a different set of questions. Are there additives or chemicals of concern in this material that may leach out during its use? We need to know what happens to this material in all of its probable end-of-life scenarios. For instance, are these inks safe for the environment if this package is composted? Are there chemicals in this material that may accumulate or limit its use if recycled? For packaging, end-of-life scenarios include litter, composting, open burning, incineration, landfills and recycling.

As the science of developing and manufacturing materials becomes more complex, and as we look to design sustainable systems to recover these materials, the need for rigorous science and information around the human and environmental impacts of materials and their auxiliaries will be increasingly important. For more resources on material health, go to www.packagingdigest.com/info/greensources.

Anne Johnson is the director of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, a project of GreenBlue (www.greenblue.org). For additional information, email info@sustainablepackaging.org-.