There are a number of shipping boxes and the forms they can take along with the materials required to make them. We are going to look at some box material that is most common in the shipping industry. That being cardboard boxes and plastic boxes. I personally will tell you right now that cardboard is better than plastic because of the environmental effects they both have on the manufacturing side of things. I also believe that cardboard is more cheap and a better alternative than plastic. Plastic production required fossil fuels which can take on the form of crude oil. Today plastic manufacturing consumes roughly twelve percent of the crude oil supply; that number is expected to jump to fifty percent by the year twenty fifty, which is only twenty nine years away.
With a new kind of electric car that seems to show up every month, the need for oil and diesel is reducing, but our human addiction to plastic will probably continue that need if not increase it. The manufacturing of plastic seems like a relatively straightforward process, but it is also putting off a large number of harmful chemicals and waste into the environment. To make plastic, oil or gas goes through a series of industrial heating, cooling, industrial chemical treatments, and molding before it takes its final shape. As simple as it seems, it is also hurting the environment. Plastic can be made from recycled materials, but roughly nine percent of all plastic made is made from those recycled materials.
As most of us know, cardboard is made from trees that can grow back. Only recently did I find out that there are tree farms. On these farms, the tree’s growth is monitored, and how much of the tree has been or will be taken off. This is good as it reduces the number of trees killed for no reason, much like the animals who love deforestation, not like we need these trees to keep us fragile humans alive or anything. To make paper, a part of a tree is taken and turned into wood chips. These chips are then mixed with water a few other chemicals that produce a slushy mixture called pulp. The pulp is then laid out on a large sheet where the water is taken out, and paper is left. Two pieces of paper are then glued together and then glued to a corrugated piece of paper to give it its strength.
Both plastic and cardboard are made from natural materials, but plastic uses up our nonrenewable resources, while cardboard is made from renewable resources and recyclable resources. When looking at the production process of each, we need to take into account the carbon footprint that gets left. Plastic is the main culprit here as it uses unknown industrial chemicals that are doing untold damage to the environment.
As humans, we love plastic for some reason. Walk into a supermarket and take a look around you, try to count the amount of plastic ware or containers you see, I’m sure you will be astonished. I believe we need to slow the process down or at least remake the plastic production process to reduce the number of fossil fumes produced and to save our nonrenewable resources for what we really need. I believe that we have to focus more on making cardboard shipping boxes and replacing the cut trees as that is a renewable resource so long as we keep a good monitor on it.
