Less Is More: A Geometric Analysis of the Environmental Impact and Cost of Inefficient Product Packaging

Overview

Objectives/Goals The purpose of this project was to determine if product packaging designs keep production materials and costs to a minimum, while also reducing the products' environmental footprint. We live in a world that has a exponentially growing human population and a limited amount of natural resources. Simple changes to the way we package materials can have a tremendous impact on limiting the usage of resources and also limiting the amount of waste that needs to be dealt with. Methods/Materials I tested the efficiency of various commercial items (rectangular prisms and cylinders) by changing the dimensions of the objects. The new dimensions allowed the object to have the least amount of waste, and retain the same volume as the original. My two main focuses were the Coca-Cola can and Kellogg's Cereal box, but I also tested many other commercial items. Results After I found the most efficient dimensions of each item, I found that each item wasted a significant amount of materials. The Coke can wasted 4.5 percent material, and the Kellogg's box wasted 20 percent material. (These items were my main focuses of this project) Conclusions/Discussion I proved that my hypothesis was correct through a series of mathematical tests of each of the commercial items, and discovered that many companies enlarge their surface area to get maximum advertisement space. Simple changes to the way we package materials can have a tremendous impact on limiting the usage of resources and also limiting the amount of waste that needs to be dealt with. A 4.5 percent savings many not sound like a lot, but when multiplied by the billions of products sold annually, this translates to enormous savings of resources and waste. My ultimate goal i to, at a minimum, change the way one product is packaged.

Competition history

• CSEF 2016 Mathematics & Computer Science · Entry J1406

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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