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Real estate these days, as is evident from the din and blare of its advertising, is in great demand for a variety of reasons. Every piece of land or built-up surface that can be acquired is being “developed” and put to good use. In the same way, product brand-owners, in their attempts to own more and more of their potential customers’ mind-share, seek out and cover the maximum possible outdoor advertising real estate. This ownership manifests itself as brightly painted hoardings and wall paintings popping out of the landscape (sometimes amidst green farmlands) to scream their brand message constantly for the customers’ brief attention.

We started our bimonthly magazine Packaging South Asia in the beginning of 2007. And although we generally get praise for the original content and presentation, the path has not been as upwardly smooth as we assumed or hoped it would be. Now with Interpack and drupa looming, it seems that we are moving on subscriptions and advertising. This could mean either that the industry is still largely marketing event driven, or that we are finally gaining traction.

Unfortunately, a lot of incorrect notions still abound, helped in no small measure by many different reports and claims or counter-claims published by a wide variety of people or organisations, each with different axes to grind, all intent on saying, a la Jack Horner, “what a good boy I am”. Everybody but everybody is bursting his guts to announce how good and responsible a corporate citizen and “green” he is and how many barrels of oil he’s saved or how many cars he’s taken off the road. Many of these claims are misleading or exaggerated. A lot of confusion certainly exists on what really constitutes sustainability in packaging. This write-up is an attempt to explain the basics involved though it must be admitted that the whole mélange of issues is aggravatingly complex and beset with contradictions and conflicts of interest between different fundamental objectives.

This is not surprising given that just China’s manufacturing exports are estimated to have exceeded US$ 1 trillion and this naturally means that the packaging required for these would largely have to come from China itself. According to one estimate

In our last issue, we had cited two statements most people believe to be true. These are: – Packaging made from natural and renewable agricultural materials like corn and wood is more environment-friendly.
– Packaging that is biodegradable is more environment-friendly.
We had gone on to say that these are both myths and, based on existing knowledge, incorrect when viewed scientifically. Let us see why this is so.

The last decade of the twentieth century has seen the emergence of a strong interest in the environmental impact associated with the products that surround us and by which we obtain the many services that civilization relies on. This interest has been accompanied by the development of methods for environmental assessment of products (1-9). Environmental assessment of products includes all the processes needed for the product to run through its life cycle — from the extraction of raw materials through production of the materials which are used in the manufacture of the product to the use of the product and its disposal

Pragati has become an international printing brand. It is a brand built by daily accomplishment and achievement although the publicity may come from the numerous awards that it wins at the international level. Moreover