Natural packaging catches on amid health concerns

My perspective on green packaging:
As I'm sure most people would agree, I think green packaging is a necessary change that needs to happen within our industry. We need to make some fundamental changes in the way we package products so to best preserve our environment.
However, there are some aspects of 'green packaging' that I very much disagree with. There are several products which have been demonized due to this new way of thinking (IE EPS foam products.) I don't always feel that everyone participating in these conversations and proposing legislation have the required knowledge to be making these decisions and the decisions being made aren't always the best for the environment. For instance, banning EPS products in NYC. One major element that has not been taken into consideration is what they will use when they switch out of EPS, which will most likely be some type of plastic container or paperboard with a plastic coating. If you take a plastic container that holds that same amount of product as an EPS container, one will likely find that the foam container weights less. This is because half of a foam container is air! When it comes to the bottom line, a foam container usually utilizes less raw materials and therefore less natural resources. One could argue on the flipside that a plastic container, while it may use more materials, can be recycled once it has been used. But EPS is just as recyclable as plastic, we just have the infrastructure to do so. Also take into consideration that despite a products recyclability or compostability those characteristics do nothing if the end user doesn't actually utilize those facilities and studies show that more times than not, they don't use them. Should we not then use our time and resources to invest in recycling and composting infrastructure and education to better capture the end stream of products?
One of the executives at my company came back from a beach vacation and proclaimed "we have to get foam products out of our system, they are reaking havoc on the environment. One morning I was walking on the beach and there foam cups and containers washed up all over the beach." I thought about it, scrunched my forehead, looked at him and said "you're in the wrong department, because the problem you just described to me is a litter and waste issue. If we made all those products out of PP instead, they'd still all be sitting there washed up on the beach."
So, yes, I believe in green materials - but I also believe that they are only a small element that fit into a much more complex puzzle.