The absurdity of such packaging is often summed up in jokes saying “if only there was a natural way to safeguard this item” and referring to a peeled banana covered in plastic wrap; and unfortunately, there are quite a few examples of such packaging.

Fruits and vegetables peeled of their natural protective layer only to be covered in an artificial one doesn’t really make sense, right? It’s not cheaper, it’s not more environmentally friendly, or more delicious, so why are they sold like that?

Well, there is one solid reason for the pre-peeled or pre-cut and then packaged foods. It’s important to note that some people, the elderly or the disabled community, for instance, do benefit from such items, as they might find it difficult to peel or cut fruits and vegetables themselves. Yet, unfortunately, it’s not only food that tends to be wrapped in plastic, and often, quite excessively.

Professor Emeritus at the Department of Chemical Engineering at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada and expert in plastics production and processing, John Vlachopoulos, suggested that excessive packaging is most commonly used for marketing purposes.

“Excessive and fancy packaging makes products appear of higher quality than they really are,” he told Bored Panda in a recent interview. “Such packaging materials are frequently thrown away, and they end up in rivers, lakes and oceans. They are not really recyclable.”

The fact that a large portion of plastic packaging can’t be recycled makes it a problem of unfathomable gravity, considering the amount of such plastic that is thrown away. Data provided by WRAP, a climate action NGO, shows that roughly 141 million tons of plastic packaging is produced globally each year, which has to end up somewhere.

As Prof. Vlachopoulos pointed out, it often ends up in rivers, lakes, and oceans, endangering all sorts of aquatic species. (To make matters worse, according to WRAP, plastic production, use, and disposal affects air pollution, too, by contributing to carbon emissions by 1.8 billion tonnes annually.)

According to Plastic Oceans International, a US-based non-profit, roughly ten tons of plastic are dumped into our oceans every year. To put it into perspective, that’s a garbage truck load of it every minute.

Plastic Oceans International also revealed that as much as half of the plastics produced every year are made for single-use purposes. That means they are used for a few brief seconds, but then left—be it in an ocean, a landfill, or elsewhere—for hundreds of years to come.

Unfortunately, basically everyone—myself included—is adding to the problem of the baffling amount of plastics, and other packaging materials, that are discarded every year. Back in 2021, EU reports estimated that every inhabitant of 27 European Union Member States and some non-EU member countries, generated roughly 189 kilograms of packaging waste.

Paper and cardboard reportedly comprised the largest part of such packaging waste, adding up to 34.0 million tons in 2021, followed by plastics (16.1 million tons) and glass (15.6 million tons).

Considering that each and every one of us contributes to the problem of (plastic) waste, we can at least determine the extent to which we are willing to do it (even if fully withdrawing from using plastic nowadays is close to impossible).

According to John Vlachopoulos, even though boycotting such things as excessive plastic packaging can be quite difficult to implement, reducing the consumption of plastic—or everything else, for that matter—can be a good idea.

But the expert emphasized that the solution to the global problem is not only reducing consumption, but—most importantly—minimizing the impact on the environment; and one of the ways to do it is recycling.

“In Norway the plastic water (PET) bottles are over 97% recycled, while in the EU about 60% and about 30% in the USA. People should stop throwing cigarette butts in the streets, too, as they will end up in lakes, rivers, and oceans,” he pointed out.

Dr. Vlachopoulos continued to note that it’s not only the visible items, such as said cigarette butts and truck loads of trash, that end up in bodies of water, but small plastic particles, too. That’s why he emphasized that things such as minimizing microplastics from washing machines can have an impact on the level of water pollution.

“I recently bought a washer-dryer, and the dryer has a screen for collecting lint. There is no trap for the microplastics shedding each time I wash my clothes, though,” the expert shared.

“About 30% of microplastics in the oceans and lakes are from washing clothes, 30% from car tires. There are some contraptions that can be applied to laundry machines, but they’re difficult to find and use. Legislation by governments is needed; no washing machine should be sold without a trap for microplastics.”

Even if they don’t have a microplastic-catching contraption on their washing machines, people understand the severity of the microplastic problem. Statistics show that the vast majority of them—83% to be exact—strongly or somewhat agree that such particles pose a serious environmental issue.

Nowadays, people seem to be more and more mindful of their impact on the environment in general, as well as willing to take action personally to combat related challenges.

The director of the food waste program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, Elizabeth Balkan, pointed out that lately, there have been powerful shifts in consumer awareness regarding single use-items, such as straws and bags.

“People are starting to see that the dependence we've formed on these things—we can undo it, if we wish to. And not having them—it might not make our lives any harder or more complicated; it could even make them much better,” she told National Geographic.

It’s not only individual effort that is changing the situation one straw at a time, as entire countries are taking action to combat the problem, too; and it seems to be working (to some extent, at least).

Green News reports that more than 100 countries now have full or partial bans on single-use plastic bags. In the nearly a decade between 2010 and 2019, the number of public policies seeking to phase out plastic carryout bags has tripled.

According to Prof. John Vlachopoulos, the old adage ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ is always modern, which is why caring for the environment shouldn’t be just a short-term trend.

If you’re looking for ways to help make our planet a more livable place for both humans and other species likewise, or if you would like to learn more about the wonderful eco-friendly initiatives out there, check out Bored Panda’s piece on a community dedicated to environmentally friendly matters to find both.