Why do we need plastic packaging? (2024)

Plastic packaging serves several important functions in our modern lives, which are the primary reasons we rely on it:

• Protection: protects vulnerable products from damage whilst in transit and from contamination or damage by moisture, humidity, gases, microorganisms, insects and light.

• Preservation:preserves products for longer, which reduces waste by giving people more time to use or consume them before it is no longer suitable to do so.

• Prevents waste: products kept togetherandspillages avoided.

• Transportation: Allows transport over great distances, sothatwe have access to a wide variety of non-local produce that, in turn, encouragestrade. It also saves space through stacking objects which make transporting more efficient.

• Displays information: important information about the product, such as nutritional content or allergy advice, is displayed on packaging.

Source: INCPEN. Why are products packaged the way they are?

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What happens without plastic packaging?

Plastic packaging is one of the most important contributors to protecting food from spoiling. Food waste has a significantly higher environmental impact, particularly in the form of its carbon footprint, than packaging waste.

Plastic packaging allows food to travel further distances, stay longer on the shelves, and ensures that large amounts of food donot go to waste. Because it takes considerably more resources to create the food itself, it often makes environmental sense to protect itfor as long as possible so the resources invested in its growth are not invested in vain.

As well as helping to deliver foodaround our global economy, liquids, gels, powders, out-of-season fruit, and other specialist items are all safely protected by the material.

There are many types of plastic that have different functional properties such as being safe for food, flexible, transparent, opaque, and chemical and heat resistant. Plastics thus are the ideal packaging material for a variety of modern requirements. Without plastic packaging to serve all these needs, it becomes very difficult (and often impossible) to transport and utilise a wide range of products people rely on every day.

Source: Prepared by the Advisory Committee on Packaging. Packaging in Perspective.

For more information on food wastage and how you can prevent it, please see Fresher for Longer and Love Food, Hate Waste

There is too much packaging, isn't there?

Plastic packagingis also an important component to keeping the lifecycle environmentalimpact of a product down. Due to the resource efficiency involved in the creation of plastic packaging, environmental costs are saved by using this material compared toreplacing it with others. Environmental costs in this case include damageto the environment such as carbon and greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere. However, it is alsoimportant to consider the plastic packaging items that are littered, which can end up in our rivers and seas. These damaging environmental consequences also requiresignificant focus from governments around the world, to ensure these items do not end up in these environments, and that they are collected for recovery and recycling in every possible case.

Source: The excellence of the plastics supply chain in relaunching manufacturing in Italy and Europe: Executive summary

Why do we useplastic?

To be fit for purpose, packaging must protect and preserve. Plastic packaging performs this function particularly well and provides many other advantages for consumers, suppliers and society. Plastic is:

• Resource efficient: plastic packaging saves packaging mass, energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Without it, we would use 2-3 times more resources.
  Source: The impact of plastic packaging on life cycle energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in Europe: Executive Summary July 2011, Bernd Brandt and Harald Pilz

• Safe: plastic is shatter resistant, containers do not break when they are dropped or knocked over, this makes them particularly useful for certain environments, such as the bathroom, around children, at the pool, by the beach or on the go.
• Hygienic: plastic keeps products free from contamination. This is particularly useful for medical packaging as packaging can be filled and sealed hygienically without any human
• intervention. (e.g. sterile syringes).
• Light weight: plastic packaging is lightweight and can take up less space than alternatives, which means lighter loads for planes and trucks and lower emissions.
• Secure: plastic can be sealed shut or moulded into a safety mechanism (e.g. child proof locks on medication)
• Durable: because plastic packaging is so durable, plastic packaging can be very thin. This means it uses fewer resources and takes up less space for transport which means fewer trucks, trains or planes are needed to transport it.
• Versatile: plastics can be transformed in many different ways. They can be blown, injected or thermomoulded. This means it can be used to package pastes and sauces. A variety of decorative effects and colours are also available.
• Recyclable: plastic packaging can be recycled many times to create new products, the rates of recycling and the number of different plastics that are recycled in the UK ave been increasing.

Learn more about recycling.

Learn about packaging and the environment.

Why do we use multiple types of polymers in packaging?

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Are You Interested in Learning More About Plastic Packaging?

The BPF has created short e-learning courses that cover plastic packaging. If you're interested in learning more, you can access our CPD approved e-learning courses on sustainable plastic packaging here.

E-Learning - Plastic Packaging Understanding the Environmental Issues

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