ABSTRACT
Clean and drinkable water is an important resource for the sustenance of humanity and generally living things. Biodegradable packaging is an emerging concept in the field of water packaging. Therefore, this thesis provides an alternative way of packaging sacheted pure water in Nigeria in order to reduce wastes and complement the peculiar challenges of recycling in Nigeria. The packaging materials introduced in this thesis will be mainly biodegradable ones. However, there are comparison of polyethylene as a form of packaging to the biodegradable form of packaging.
To make this thesis beneficial to the case company, the author divided the research project into two main impacts of environmental and economic nature. These two main groups are necessitated to introduce a sense of sustainability in the market and to create profitability for the company.
The research method used in this thesis is qualitative. The collection of data was mainly in the form of interviews on the management level, environmental workers and everyday consumers as well as observation of the environment.
The research findings show that, the introduction of biodegradable bags for the production of sacheted pure water will be economically and ethically beneficial to the case company. It also reduces government responsibility for creating a better environment.
The introduction of an additive in this research, further helps to understand the importance of a biodegradable product that quickly removes on-sight litter with no harmful residue after degradation.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 Introduction
Thesis background
Research question
Demarcation
International Aspect
Anticipated Benefits
Key Concepts
Case Company
Risks in the thesis process
Degradable / Biodegradable Packaging of Sachet Pure Water in Nigeria
Green packaging of Sachet Pure Water
2 Theoretical Framework
Biodegradable package
Packaging material and handling system
Recycling
Health Consequences of Polyethylene bag
Current disposal statistics and analysis
Argument between biodegradable vs non-biodegradable
Plastic Bag Life Span
Market Trends
3 Qualitative as Research Method
Research Design
Data Collection
Validity and Reliability
4 Results
Environmental Impacts
Economic Impacts
Results of end users perception
Results of environmental field workers
5 Challenges and Opportunities
6 Discussion and Conclusion
Benefits to the Company
Company Feedback
Analysis of Learning
Suggestions for future research
References
Appendices
1 Introduction
Sacheted pure water is a popular type of water packaging of drinkable water that has re-duced the economic hardship of the large majority of Nigerians who cannot afford to buy the bottled drinkable water. Sachet pure water can be defined as water that is intended for human consumption. It is normally sealed in a plastic bag and contains no ingredient ex-cept safe and suitable fluorides. (Narasimhan & Himabindu 2010, 582-588.)
Small and medium scale entrepreneurs introduced sacheted pure water bags in small ny-lon which are heated at both ends. It is mostly patronized by members of the public with low socio-economic class (Narasimhan & Himabindu 2010, 582-588.)
The difficulty of recycling sacheted pure water in Nigeria has necessitated the need for a green packaging solution. Ecological considerations are growing in importance with con-centration on packages materials that are biodegradable and less dependent on polyvi-nylchloride (Arjan & Weele 2010, 373-374).
Based on a blog by Benzoni (2013), metropolitan authorities in Accra, have not been able to install new water connections nearly fast enough to keep up with the rapid population growth. As a result, the public themselves have to turn to the private sector to seek an-swer to their water challenges. (Benzoni, 8 December 2003).
Observations conducted by the thesis author as shown in Figures 2&10 on pages 4 and 29 respectively, shows that settlements in Nigeria especially in the rural areas, suffers en-vironmental challenges due to the inability of recycling companies or government agen-cies to effectively manage recycling of these sacheted pure water bags or come for pickup of wastes. As a result, there are millions of this sachet pure water littered everywhere that choke drainages and also act as a source of breeding ground for mosquitoes. The attitude of Nigerians as we shall see during this research has also contributed to this problem. The indiscriminate disposing of this sacheted bags has further compounded the problems. This act and others has led to continuous flooding issue (Figure 2, page 4) and increased cases of death due to malaria infection that is facing Nigeria today (World Malaria Report, 2016).
According to Benzoni, (2013), emphasises the consequences of a possible ban of sachets as part of a larger ban on plastic bags. The report also mentioned that such move as been recommended by the Ghana authority will cause severe marginalisation of significant number of urban poor masses who would struggle to get access to drinkable water. (Ben-zoni 8 December 2013.)...
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Item Type: Project Material | Size: 63 pages | Chapters: 1-5
Format: MS Word | Delivery: Within 30Mins.
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