As the global population continues to grow, there will need to be an increased focus on making the world sustainable for future generations. The management of waste from both individuals and companies will play a significant role in the environmental future. Walmart recently made an announcement to take a lead role in environmental sustainability, pledging to be packaging neutral by the year 2025. The ultimate aim from Walmart is to repurpose all of their packaging and recycle it for future products.
For Walmart to achieve their goal, they will have to overcome challenges to become packaging neutral. So far, Walmart has come towards their objective. On their website, Walmart states that eighty-one percent of waste from their United States stores are being diverted from landfills, with an even higher percent in stores overseas (Walmart, 2016). For Walmart to become one hundred percent packaging neutral, they will have to pressure their vendors to reduce their packaging requirement. By using less overall packaging, there will be less excess material that could end up in a landfill. It will be up to Walmart to force these companies to conform to these ideals. Another challenge from within the company will be to reduce the number of plastic bags used by their consumers. Several companies do not offer plastic bags and incentivize the use of reusable bags. Walmart states they are trying to phase out the use of plastic packaging and the sooner they can perform this task, the closer they will be to packaging neutrality.
Despite the challenges of becoming packaging neutral, Walmart does have a plan towards how they will accomplish their goal. On their YouTube channel, Walmart has released a video named “Secret Life of Walmart's Deli Pizza Box.” This video documents the journey of a used pizza box, leaving the store, being recycled, and then repackaged into a new pizza box (Walmart, 2010). While the cardboard is one-hundred percent recycled, the energy used to run the plant is coming from an outside source. The video says that the plant will soon be able to be self-sustaining from recycled wood chips and excess waste from the recycling process. Until that occurs, then I believe that the plant will not be one-hundred percent packaging neutral.
Walmart has set an ambitious goal in becoming packaging neutral by the year 2025. They have made progress with their reuse of pizza boxes; there still will be challenges ahead for Walmart to reach their goal. Regardless of if they reach their goal by 2025, Walmart should be commended for taking a leadership position in the effort for global sustainability for future generations.
References
Walmart (2010, May 12) Secret Life of Walmart’s Deli Pizza Box [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVScI_XS84A
Walmart (2016, June 8). Sustainability. Retrieved from http://corporate.walmart.com/global-responsibility/sustainability/
