Packaging materials were targeted as being environmentally unfriendly by many organizations and legislators based upon the percentage of packaging materials in landfills. The benefits and functions of packaging were ignored in this assessment. The nominee took a proactive role to show the importance of packaging in today's society, ranging from an essay (E12) and editorial (E7) to a Scientific Status Summary (SSS) on management of food packaging (A2) which was the first SSS prepared by someone outside academia. Dr. Marsh initiated a workshop in Washington, DC in 1991 on "Food Packaging, Food Protection and the Environment", sponsored by the Institute of Food Technologists' Office of Scientific Public Affairs, and organized and chaired by the IFT Food Packaging Division. The white paper report prepared from this symposium (A3) was co-authored by Dr. Marsh, and was hand delivered to all members of congress as well as other key policy people. Dr. Marsh also represented the US at the International Symposium on Packaging, Economic Development, and the Environment, sponsored by the Institute of Packaging Professionals (IoPP), which published a video and proceedings (C3) to communicate packaging information to interested parties. This involvement led to seminars on environmental concerns in the US, Asia, Middle East, and Europe, which have included proposals to improve recycling and reduce potential health hazards resulting from unreasonable recycling practices.
Seminars, speeches and courses are indexed by topic (including "Environmental") under the link at left.