Pack News of the week: Packaging elimination and phthalate contamination

Wal-Mart Wants to Eliminate All Packaging Waste by 2025

Wal-Mart wants to eliminate all waste by reducing, recycling or reusing everything that comes into its 4,100 American stores by 2025, and for Asda, its British operation, the target is 2010, reported UK Times Online.

The giant retailer aims to reduce the amount of packaging in the supply chain 5 percent by 2013, and is working with suppliers to help find sustainable packaging solutions. The retailer recently hosted its fourth annual Sustainable Packaging Expo in Rogers, Ark., and discovered a cardboard box, made by Interstate Container, that stays waterproof for two weeks, is biodegradable and made of recycled cardboard, which may help the superstore meet its sustainability goals, according to UK Times Online.

Studies link packaging chemical to childhood obesity

Endocrine disruptors such as phthalates used in food packaging could be linked to childhood obesity, according to two studies from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

Researchers found children in New York's East Harlem are three times more likely than other children in the US to be overweight, and they said that high levels of the packaging chemicals found in the children's urine may play a role in obesity by disrupting hormones that regulate growth and development.

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