What is Environmental Compliance? Why Does It Matter?

environmental_law_verdicts
Img Source : The daily star

What is environmental compliance? Why it is critical to your business?

Let’s start with the definition of environmental compliance first.

Cambridge dictionary defines compliance as “the act of obeying an order, rule, or request”. If you add the word environmental before compliance, you get a clear definition of what environmental compliance is.

In simple words, environmental compliance is a practice of obeying the laws relating to the environment. It is like any other law or regulation. You need to abide by these laws to stay out of legal troubles.

In the USA, environmental compliance is made and enforced by city, county, state and federal environmental agencies. The inspections, compliance, and monitoring are performed by the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA), the law enforcement arm of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The US environmental laws cover the usage of water, energy management, waste management, storage tanks, fuel, and toxic releasing inventories. On violating these laws, a person can end up paying hefty fines, jail time or both.

Keep in mind that the USA has a complex environmental law that is a mix of federal, state, local laws, regulation, science, and health concerns.

Top of that, the laws are likely to change frequently.

Why EC (Environmental Compliance) Matters to Your Business

It is a bitter truth that the environment is not always the topmost business priority. Or you can say that it is not a serious concern among most businesses.

However, violating the environment laws can make your subject to penalties and imprisonment. Besides, it can affect the reputation of your business.

But that doesn’t mean you treat it as a law you are bound to abide by. Instead, it should be seen as a responsibility to protect and conserve natural resources. Being active in minimizing your carbon footprint, reducing the level of wastage and becoming more sustainable can lead to energy savings, spending less on inputs, and creating a positive impression in the minds of your customers.

Here are some of the key benefits of compliance with environmental laws…

  • Helping you meeting legal requirements
  • Auditing lets you demonstrate that you are environmentally responsible
  • Helping you meet statutory reporting requirements
  • Helping you understand the effect of products, services, and action on the environment.
  • Researching and conducting compliance requirements on behalf of organizations.
  • Ensuring that your business’s environmental risks are managed appropriately
  • Helping you improve environmental performance and saving cost

 

 

Retail Packaging and Environment: Not an Easy Affair

Image Source : sunpack.com

Retailers are aware of the environmental concerns caused by packaging. However, eliminating plastic is not the total solution.

In a recent survey, 71.4% of consumers said that they want food and grocery retailers to be more eco-friendly. In other words, today’s customers are more aware of environmental concerns and want shops and businesses to reduce their impact.

The ever-increasing environment awareness among consumers has prompted many major retailers to reduce plastic usage. Some retail stores are using paper bags for loose fruit and veggies while some are using recyclable plastic packaging. 

Is “zero plastic” possible?

While most retailers are thinking about eliminating plastic packaging, it may not be feasible for them unless a powerful alternative is discovered. Plastic perhaps makes up most of the waste that goes into the ocean or dumped into landfills every year. However, the target of “zero plastic” isn’t realistic. Plastic is counted among the most flexible and durable packaging ideal for storing and transportation. Besides, it is great for branding.

However, it is worth to mention that many major brands like Nestlé, Unilever, The Body Shop, Procter and Gamble and PepsiCo have announced a reusable and refillable packaging model. Walmart has also announced that it is looking to reduce the packaging waste generated by its private labels with the goals of achieving 100% recyclable or compostable packaging for its private brands by 2025.

Some companies are launching their products without packaging. For example, Lush, a skincare brand, has launched Lush Naked Shops where they sell packaging-free products like shops. This new packaging concept has been termed as “Nude” packaging.

Humankind has gone one step further as they refill the products like deodorant, shampoo, and mouthwash of their customer once they are emptied. It means that customers have to buy those plastic packaging or container one time. This way, the company is minimizing the use of plastic.

Eliminating Plastic Only Can’t Serve the Purpose

It’s not only the plastic that impacts the environment. A better way to consider the environmental impact of materials is to look at the entire system, from manufacturing, transportation to warehousing.

For example, many companies want to use glass as a potential substitute, but the product also leaves a carbon footprint. The glass manufacturing process involves the furnaces being fired with fossil fuels, consuming more energy than the energy being consumed by the plastic. Then, when a glass is transported, it’s heavy, which simply means that it impacts the environment.

Glass isn’t an evil product, either. Both plastic and glass materials are important.

The Case is More Complicated at E-Commerce Store:

The packaging seems to be an inseparable part of eCommerce. While a customer can decide on packaging while shopping at a physical store, online shoppers don’t see packaging. They instead get a view of the final product and make their buying decision.

 

In an e-commerce scenario, the role of the packaging in encouraging the customers to buy the product is not nearly as important. The role of packaging is to protect the product from damages during shipping.

 

Here Amazon deserves a pat on their back. The e-commerce company is trying to ship the products on its inventory in more streamlined packaging. Amazon has started shipping in recyclable boxes that are easy to option and free of excess materials like hard plastic clamshell cases, wire ties and plastic bindings. It eats up less space in shipping containers and boxes, making shipping more efficient. It translates into the reduction in the consumption of greenhouse gases and fuels.

 Bottom Line:

To conclude, eliminating plastic from retail packaging is not an easy goal. However, consumers can play a big role in this scenario. For example, the can reuse or re purpose the plastic packaging they get.

 

 

Bale Bags for Garbage, Municipal Waste, Trash, Recycling, Compactor & FIBC Usage

Flexible Intermediate Bulk Container and Trash Compactor Bale Bag
Flexible Intermediate Bulk Container and Trash Compactor Bale Bags

iSell Packagings produces, distributes and imports bale bags for use in garbage, municipal waste, trash, recycling and compactor usage as well as Flexible Intermediate Bulk Container. These are sometimes referred to as FIBC Bags. We have numerous clients around the country including private and municipal landfills and recycling centers. Our woven polyethylene bale bags and FIBC bags  can be custom made to your specifications including various dimensions and strength.

Loose or non-baled materials require a tremendous amount of space compared to baled waste. One of the main benefits of baling as much of a waste stream of recyclables as possible (such as bulky cardboard) is that the materials are removed from the waste stream. Even when there is no ‘recycling program’ in place this can lower waste hauling requirements considerably, since even a small quantity of baled recyclables would probably be picked up at no charge by a recycler. 

By using some basic information it can be a simple process for determining the benefits that will be derived from using a baler and woven baler bags. Balers that are purchased with a specific purpose in mind and are utilized properly almost always yield great paybacks. Waste from business operations is a highly neglected area and because of that there are tremendous streamlining and efficiency benefits (aside from recycling benefits) that can be derived by baling and compacting waste. Reducing loose waste to cubes of trash (whether compacted or baled) offers management much insight that is otherwise unknown and impossible to quantify. Taking control of waste processing routines can also help to pinpoint problems in other areas such as purchasing practices that might be causing unnecessary waste. A side benefit of balers (just as with compactors) is that they can provide the owner / operator with fairly accurate trash weight information. By knowing the average weight of each bale, then it is just a matter of tracking the number of baled cubes in order to derive the total estimated weight of material for a given period of time, whether weekly or monthly. With loose trash, especially when it is being discarded in dumpsters through different channels it is nearly impossible. 

By applying some basic principles, the benefits of Balers and the positive overall effects on business operations can be realized. Oftentimes, there are numerous other operational efficiencies that can result from the benefits derived from streamlining the waste processing routines. Aside from the many operational efficiencies when using Balers there are also benefits related to environmental issues and community image. And, as mentioned before, good insight into your waste stream can provide vital information that can be utilized to curb wasteful buying routines. Oftentimes, companies that have streamlined their waste processing end up with cleaner facilities, cleaner appearance around dumpster areas and less fire hazards from excessive trash piles in and around the facility.


Before balers are introduced into a business care should be taken in carefully evaluating the waste stream for key areas where recyclables are generated, as well as the volume and type of waste materials that might be the best candidates for baling equipment. This will also help during the selection of a baler since there are so many different types of balers that have varying capabilities (for baling different types and volumes of recyclables). Getting the right baler and waste equipment will help improve your overall efficiencies and paybacks.

Bulk Bags or Flexible Intermediate Bulk Containers (FIBCs) are an economical and most cost effective ideal type of package for handling and storage. iSell Packagings is a full service manufacturer and distributor of bulk bags. We also import Clean room or Hygiene room bags made for pharmaceutical and food industries.

FIBC Trash Compactor Bale Bags
Trash Compactor Bale Bags