Dogwood Alliance

Southern Forests & the Packaging Problem

Packaging symbolizes the disposable society we have become. More and more, the piles of packaging we are forced to deal with no longer only serve the essential functions of protecting and transporting goods and products, but instead are about branding, marketing, and sales. As a result, in the U.S. we generate 300 pounds of packaging waste per person each year and 32% of the entire domestic waste stream consists of containers and packaging.

Learn about the negative environmental impacts on Southern forests caused by business as usual packaging and what Dogwood Alliance is going to do about it.

Click here to read more about the health and beauty industry and the Packaging Problem.

Click here to read more about the music industry and the Packaging Problem.

Click here to read more about the fast food industry and the Packaging Problem.

There is a rising international movement challenging the status quo that is devoted to responsible and sustainable packaging. And the thinking behind this initiative is reaching the marketplace. Waste reduction, smart design, recycled content, responsibly sourced paper fiber and even rethinking the need for packaging altogether; these are the ideas behind the very real efforts by Corporate America to fix its packaging problem. Please read more for information on these corporate leaders and click here for other sustainable packaging initiatives.

The impact of the business as usual production of paper packaging at these mills on the rich, diverse forests of the American South is serious. In the last 50 years, the acreage dedicated to pine plantations has gone from virtually zero to about 32 million acres. The South, once a vast landscape of the most bio-diverse temperate forests in the world, now is home to 32 million acres of sterile pine plantations interspersed throughout this precious ecosystem. Because millions of years ago the glaciers did not make it this far South, we have some of the highest concentration of tree species anywhere in the world—which attracts a high number of plant and animal species in the native Southern forests landscape. When natural forests are converted to monoculture pine plantations, we loose that abundance and biodiversity that make the Southern U.S. a hotspot for species diversity and cultural heritage.