This is an insightful story. Thank you for sharing it.

As a designer myself, I feel your excitement. This is another proof of the product design difficulties. Making the package appealing to the customer, marketable and accessible while keeping it eco-friendly.

Besides the good parts, I see the jar story as misleading and frightening. It doesn’t show the bigger picture. That ‘2 year garbage’ jar is only the waste aka the garbage that can’t be recycled. To help the environment doesn’t mean we need to make our lives less comfortable. It doesn’t mean we should carry a handkerchief instead of tissues. It only means, as Lauren states in her blog, it means to recycle.

The toilet paper question, as funny as it is, serves as the best example of this. Buying that paper wrapped roll made from recyclable material is a zero waste product which doesn’t change the process itself in any way, but it heals the planet with every use.

So, the power stands in our acquisition decisions. We need more such choices. We need that ‘packaging police’, mentioned in the article too. But this is far, far away and by that time it will be already too late.