Food sold in recycled cardboard packaging 'poses risk'

Piwoslaw · 03-08-11, 04:03 AM

Food sold in recycled cardboard packaging 'poses risk' - BBC News

Today only a small percentage of food actually touches its cardboard packaging, most of it is packed in plastic and then put into a cardboard box, which plays only an estetic/marketing role. But once word gets out that recycled cardboard is bad, it will cause the market to slow down, making paper harder (more expensive) to be recycled.

Of course, the problem is mineral oil based inks in newspapers. If that was replaced by vegetable oil based ink, then there would be one problem less. I wonder why recycled cardboard is a health issue, but mineral oil print is not?

The alternatives are either non-recycled cardboard (more expensive and a waste of trees), or aluminum (very expensive economically and environmentally), or plastic which is also known to contain lots of "healthy" substances.

cholcombe · 03-08-11, 02:09 PM

Well that is certainly worrisome. Yikes!

03-08-11, 04:03 AM	#1
Piwoslaw Super Moderator Join Date: May 2009 Location: Warsaw, Poland Posts: 961 Thanks: 188 Thanked 110 Times in 86 Posts	Food sold in recycled cardboard packaging 'poses risk' Food sold in recycled cardboard packaging 'poses risk' - BBC News Today only a small percentage of food actually touches its cardboard packaging, most of it is packed in plastic and then put into a cardboard box, which plays only an estetic/marketing role. But once word gets out that recycled cardboard is bad, it will cause the market to slow down, making paper harder (more expensive) to be recycled. Of course, the problem is mineral oil based inks in newspapers. If that was replaced by vegetable oil based ink, then there would be one problem less. I wonder why recycled cardboard is a health issue, but mineral oil print is not? The alternatives are either non-recycled cardboard (more expensive and a waste of trees), or aluminum (very expensive economically and environmentally), or plastic which is also known to contain lots of "healthy" substances. __________________ Ecorenovation - the bottomless piggy bank that tries to tame the energy hog. Last edited by Piwoslaw; 03-09-11 at 12:02 AM..

03-08-11, 02:09 PM	#2
cholcombe Helper EcoRenovator Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Portland, OR Posts: 56 Thanks: 13 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	Well that is certainly worrisome. Yikes!