Stanislaw Lem on Packaging Materials

[Ryan Carboni]

Our mighty civilization strives for the production of commodities as
impermanent as possible in packaging as permanent as possible. The
impermanent product must soon be replaced by a new one, and this is
good for the economy; the permanence of the packaging, on the other
hand, makes its disposal difficult, and this promotes the further
development of technology and organization. Thus the consumer copes
with each consecutive article of junk on an individual basis, whereas
for the removal of the packaging; special antipollution programs are
required, sanitary engineering, the coordination of efforts, planning,
purification and decontamination plants, and so on.