Breaking Down the Bias: Unpacking the Complexity of Sustainable Choices in Packaging

A research blog post on perceived sustainability by Tim Döring, an Assistant Professor at Marketing and Supply Chain Management Department. Sustainable choices are often more complex than we think - even when they seem crystal clear, our intuitions about sustainability can be wrong. Take something as simple as buying a cucumber - in or without plastic wrap. Choosing the cucumber without plastic wrap seems like the more sustainable option. Plastic wrap does indeed add to the environmental impact of the cucumber. However, the additional environmental impact of the food waste created by not wrapping cucumbers outweighs the impact of adding the wrap by about  five to one ! Similarly, some  studies  suggest that coffee pods - the epitome of wastefulness - are more environmentally friendly than regular filter coffee. Lastly, if you use an organic cotton tote over a plastic shopping bag, you might have chosen the less sustainable option - unless you reuse the cotton tote at least  20,000 times.