Green Citizen
The waste of packaging influences the consumer’s perception of quality towards the brand identity (Lindh, Olsson, & Williams, 2016; Lindh, Williams, Olsson, & Wikström, 2016). This places increased pressure on manufacturers to reduce the impact of their packaging on the environment.
Recycling in the past was driven by the fact that recycling people was scarce, now it shows ownership by citizens, following social patterns and what is expected of people, to care for the environment. This group is called green consumer-citizenship. Being a citizen means that the person belongs to this community (Jørgensen, 2013). The citizen consumer becomes a member by how they display buying or not buying actions, the brands they follow, the brand communities they form or the organisations that speak for them they support (Johnston, 2008).
The consumer who is a green consumer citizen can be classed as a subgroup of consumers who are active in society, shown by their habits in consumption of products and being aware of the life cycle of the product from production to recycling of the waste. This action is an expression of green citizenship, and they do not function on their own (Jørgensen, 2013).
John Barry (a political scientist) argued that governments do not become green on their own; they need to be forced by green citizens to follow environmental processes. On the flip side, the government needs to assist and encourage citizens to form green habits and actions that are the basis of citizens showing sustainability (Barry, 2006).
The decisions to consume or recycle is based not only on the person’s values but also on knowledge and facts, disposal structures, ease of obtaining a new service or product and timelines. Many other players besides the customer are involved who are the government, businesses and organizations. The analysis of Cowan’s show the consume junction as the interface where technology changes social structure (Cowan, 1987). Thomas Hine (a packaging historian) argues that packaging can be powerful to communicate which need the product will satisfy, the package can also show the waste once the product has been used. The package is left as waste (Hine, 1997).
Waste Management Plan
Packaging SA was requested by the Environmental Affairs to draw up an industry waste management plan, they focused on the packaging and paper industry (2010). The draft plan was revised in 2014 and again in 2017. This remains the main plan to guide the industry doing their part in taking care of the environment by redesigning their packaging according to the ‘Design for Recycling’ manual (Packaging SA, 2017). Each of the packaging design materials chosen was based on the information found in the Design for Recycling manual. See the ‘design for recycling’ definition according to the Packaging-SA-EPR-Plan-Volume-1-1 dated 5 September 2018, below:
Summary of substances that constitute waste:
The Packaging SA Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Plan was developed to respond to the request from the National Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) Section 28 call for Industry Waste Management Plans published on 6th of December 2017 and submitted to the DEA on 5 September 2018. This plan goes beyond the requirements for an Industry Waste Management Plan, with the aim of answering the question: “How can an EPR Plan respond to the needs of South Africa and stimulate an economy that can foster meaningful work opportunities; encourage partnerships and provide a platform for transformation?”
The definition of the Industry Waste Management Plans (IndWMPS) is found below:
Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries (DEFF) announced the decision to develop and move from a government-managed plan to an industry-managed plan. This process has been expanded over more than three years. This plan is still in progress and no final plan has been submitted. The Producer Responsibility Organisations have managed to increase their year on year recycle figures over the last decade to become world recycle leaders (Packaging SA, 2020).
According to Anton “We cannot afford to gamble with the future of our environment or our industry but need a plan that will allow us to use collection and recycling mechanisms that have already been put into place and have proven to be successful. Enabling access to better quality and quantities of recyclable waste by introducing household separation-at-source nationally, and contributing to economic growth through unlocking new opportunities,” (Packaging SA, 2020).
As a result of this unpublished future industry-manage plan, all packaging designers use the waste disposal process from the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Plan. The infographic below explains how and where to dispose and recycle each piece of packaging material (Packaging SA, 2018).
Where to Recycle
Use the MyWaste tool.
Find a drop-off centre near you.
Support a local community centre, church or school.
Keep recyclables aside for informal collectors.
Contract the services of a small recycling business.
(Recycle Paper, 2018)
