Carton cuts with Neal Whipp: A wave of nostalgia can help fight off unnecessary packaging

Apparently, as a nation, we’re all in the grip of a wave of nostalgia, sparking a deluge of mid-20th-century-style homewares, vintage clothing and books promoting the kind of ‘make-do-and-mend’ philosophy that would have made our grandparents proud.

The most likely source of a countrywide yearning for bygone times that’s leading a surge in demand for all things retro, is this year’s commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain.

But I’d also wager that the current state of the economy combined with yet another unpredictable winter ahead – quite possibly a bizarre blend of unseasonal warmth and icy arctic blasts – has left us yearning for the seemingly less complicated days of the 1940s, when coats were either duffel or gabardine and Christmases – like the slices of bread on our plates – were always white.

The British approach to packaging was a lot more straightforward, too. Even the most cursory wet-Sunday-afternoon viewing of a film like David Lean’s This Happy Breed paints a picture of a world in which every household essential – even the butter for the cat’s paws – was separately weighed and expertly wrapped in a scrap of brown paper and string.

Now, while it’s fair to say that recent advancements in packaging have led to more hygienic practices, with better-preserved and more attractively presented goods arriving daily on the shelves of our shops, it seems that the scales have tipped too far the other way and companies are now being accused of over-packaging products.

Consumers don’t want a return to wartime austerity; no-one under the age of 70 saves bits of twine anymore or thinks that it’s sinful to discard gift wrapping paper after a single use. But we don’t want to be profligate with the planet’s limited resources, either and, if there’s anything to be learned from our frugal forebears, it’s that there’s something to be said for keeping things simple.

In fact, now we’ve all bought into the ‘reduce, re-use, recycle’ mantra and seem to spend half our lives sorting our rubbish into neat boxes, not to mention schlepping down to Oxfam on a regular basis to give someone else the opportunity to benefit from our latest LP cull, we’re all more acutely aware of how much rubbish we actually generate.

Little wonder, then, that our hackles rise when confronted by a few meagre items packaged in an impenetrable sheet of plastic cladding that inevitably requires the application of a Swiss army knife and a few choice swear words before we can retrieve the contents and chuck the shredded remains of the pack straight in the bin.

Which is why cartonboard is even more relevant today than it was 70 years ago. It remains one of the most sustainable forms of packaging available, not only manufactured from renewable resources but also easily recycled again, without any of the complex sorting needed for other materials.

So, if this year’s flirtation with nostalgia leads to a reduction in unnecessary waste – especially in the messy aftermath of another consumer-fuelled Christmas – then I’m all for it. Just don’t ask me to swap my iPod for a gramophone!

What do you think? Join the debate and leave your comments below.