__

Waste Recycling: Long Distance, Short Life: Why Big Business Favours Recycling
The only definition of packaging that bears any scrutiny is that it is something disposable but persistent — a manufactured product so cheap and unloved that it is not worth the inconvenience of keeping it; but that when jettisoned, obstinately refuses to disappear. If discarded packaging — litter — blended discreetly back into the environment like beanpoles, banana-leaf plates or the falling leaves of autumn, we would not have to bury it and it would not pose such a problem. If, on the other hand, packaging were costly and crafted, we would not be at such pains to eject it from our homes. In neither case would there be a need for a special word.