As global demand for rigid plastic packaging is rising, environmental awareness is increasing. In response, many manufacturers and retailers are moving towards greater sustainability, targeting both effectiveness and environmentalism with their rigid plastic packaging.
Pira International Ltd., the Leatherhead-based consultants and researchers, says packaging production for food and drink in Europe is expected to achieve above average growth in volume terms between 2010 and 2015. Forecast compound annual growth of 3.7 percent for plastic bottles, trays, pots and tubs is almost double the 1.9 percent predicted for European food and drink packaging overall.
Shatterproof and lighter in weight as they are, rigid plastics are increasingly replacing traditional packaging such as glass, metal and paperboard cartons, Pira notes. Manufacturers are also leaning towards recyclability, as PET has overtaken polyethylene as the leading polymer for rigid packaging and now accounts for a third of world rigid plastic packaging consumption.
Pira reports that suppliers across all packaging sectors are looking to add value through innovation by integrating lightweighting, recycling, biodegradability and sustainability.
UK based RPC Group currently has many rigid plastic packaging innovations focused around lightweighting, post-consumer recycled material, and glass replacement. Its Jugit system, a milk bag refill in a reusable container, uses 75 percent less packaging than a traditional plastic milk bottle. Another container – the 300ml PET bottle for Marks & Spencerґs Essential Extracts personal care range – incorporates 30 percent recycled content.
U.S.-based Ecologic Brands has created the eco.bottle, offering a quite different alternative to plastic bottles. This is a hybrid fiber-plastic product that is made using up to 70 percent less plastic than a traditional plastic bottle as it has a recyclable plastic inner pouch inside a molded fiber shell. The shell is 100 percent recyclable and compostable.
Bryan Glasper, RPCґs sustainability manager, says customer demand for eco-friendly packaging has been increasing, leading to the use of recycled polymers for lightweighting packs for both food and non-food products. “This has extended to consideration of glass and metal replacement,” Glasper says, adding that RPC is also exploring the use of plant-based polymers in rigid plastic packaging.
“Bio-degradation is sometimes of dubious efficiency, [and] compostability is also questionable,” he said. “[But] in any case, recycling is considered better environmentally as long as otherwise ‘longґ carbon is converted into ‘shortґ carbon, thus adding to the environmental burden.”
A key part of the challenge for producers has been to develop greener packaging that is as good as that made entirely with traditional plastics.
Source: Waste & Recycling News
By M.J. Deschamps | EUROPEAN PLASTICS NEWS