I've said it 100 times, and I'll keep saying it, we've got this whole recycling and biodegradable information messed up...not only in the US but worldwide.  So many people seem to think recycling means biodegradable and if something is biodegradable it's the answer to all of our environmental problems, etc.  This is pure nonsense.

For the record, we sell stand up pouches, custom and printed and stock and plain, and they are part of the flexible packaging industry.  Stand up pouches, also known as stand up bags or stand bags are used extensively to help companies reduce the amount of packaging they use while still protecting their product and keeping it fresher for longer.  Reduction of plastic and packaging is the best way to help our environment, far more than any other method.

However, that's enough about stand up bags for this blog post.  Here is information you can use.

Recycling is when you can take a package and grind it back up to be used in other types of packaging.  

Biodegradable is when a package can be left outside in the air and sunlight and will over time disintegrate into nothing.

Landfill Friendly is when something can be thrown away in the trash without any special requirements

Reduction is reducing the amount of packaging used (move from a drum or tin or canister or bottle to something thinner or something that uses less packaging, etc)

The reason for this particular post is an article in Food Production Daily talking about some unrealistic government targets for plastic recycling in the UK, our friends overseas.  This is no different than what we are dealing with in the US, people don't understand the terminology, statements and directives are made without any real thought or logic behind them.  It wasn't that long ago that WalMart mentioned that they were requiring ALL of their packaging to be made a certain way or with a corn starch base versus oil or something like that...all this by a particular date.  The packaging industry freaked out.  Why?  Because that type of packaging hadn't been invented/created yet.  Behind closed doors this directive was dropped for obvious reasons.

The quote from UK industry association said it perfectly...reducing the environmental impact of plastics would "be achievable only if the whole plastic packaging recycling supply was syncronized by proper strategy."  Translation, everyone needs to be on the same page working toward the same goal.  I'm not aware of any country, US or otherwise, with a proper strategy...yet.  I'll let you know, stay tuned.