Featured project - reducing plastic packaging by Tarini Bengani

Featured project - reducing plastic packaging by Tarini Bengani

by Singapore Science Centre SSCG -
Number of replies: 0
Thanks Tarini for your project as part of the young Sustainability champion

The Tic Tac Spender Box (image attached below) is hugely unsustainable as it is a giant plastic container filled with 60 mini plastic containers. Firstly, it will use up lots of resources and money to produce all this plastic. Secondly, more than 90% of plastic is not recycled and ends up in landfills and in our oceans. 

Therefore, it is important that the amount of plastic used in this product is reduced. This can be done by completely removing the mini containers and just filling the big container with the contents of the tiny containers. However, I do understand that people probably purchase the Spender Box so they can enjoy the fun-sized portions of the mini boxes. So another option could be to keep the Tic Tacs from the mini containers in small brown paper bags or a different bag/container made of a compostable material. This means it can be recycled and won’t end up harming our environment.

There may be some economic challenges with using paper bags instead. It is more expensive to produce paper bags which could possibly stop Ferrero (the manufacturer of Tic Tacs) from switching to this more eco-friendly method of packaging their product. Additionally, consumers may prefer the plastic containers as they are more durable and as a result demand for this product may go down, leading to less revenue for Ferrero.

References:

https://www.boredpanda.com/unnecessary-wasteful-packaging/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic

https://mitte.co/2018/07/18/truth-recycling-plastic/

https://www.bmt.com/what-is-the-real-cost-of-paper-vs-plastic/