Recyclable and sustainable plastic packaging materials are the development trend of packaging industry
release time：2022-04-29 viewed：16266次
The sustainable development of human society makes plastic packaging face more and more environmental pressure, but plastic packaging will not be replaced by other packaging materials because of its unique advantages. In the future, with the progress of technology, plastic packaging materials will be used in a way of reducing carbon emissions and harmless to the environment, so as to improve the use value of plastic packaging materials.
Our planet needs sustainable packaging solutions
Globally, according to statistics, 42% of plastics are used for packaging, most of which are only used for one-time use. Therefore, the problems caused by plastic pollution in the ecosystem are long-term and lasting.
The recovery rate of plastics is only 10%, which means that 90% of plastics are burned, buried or directly discarded into the natural environment. Plastics usually take 20 to 400 years or more to decompose. Fragments or microplastics from decomposed plastics remain in the atmospheric cycle, from water to food and soil, and in all aspects we are involved. The use of sustainable packaging materials can break this negative cycle.
More and more countries are implementing laws to reduce disposable plastic packaging
In 2021, Australia announced the National Plastics plan, which aims to ban the use of disposable plastics by 2025. In addition to Australia, more and more countries and cities in the world are also taking action to ban the use of disposable plastics. In the EU, the 2019 "disposable plastics directive" aims to crack down on the 10 most common disposable plastic items on European beaches, which account for 70% of all marine garbage in the EU. In the United States, California, Hawaii and New York have begun legislation to prohibit disposable plastic products such as plastic bags, forks and food containers. In Asia, countries such as Indonesia and Thailand took the lead in calling for measures to ban the use of disposable plastics.
Compared with the legislative pressure waiting for the government to issue, Morgan Stanley research reported that the number of Companies Implementing the "plastic strategy" in the United States more than doubled year-on-year from 2018 to 2019 alone. This shows that under the general trend of the future, enterprises are willing to pay relative profits to make changes to achieve the objectives of environmental strategy and social responsibility. Of course, this does not rule out the driving force of sustainable packaging development, and the commercial benefits that can be brought may also be a major factor.
Plastic packaging alternatives are not always perfect, and sustainable utilization is more important
According to the data of Ranpak and Harris, e-commerce customers in the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany are willing to cooperate with companies using sustainable packaging. In fact, in all these countries, more than 70% of consumers have this preference, while more than 80% of consumers in the UK and France prefer sustainable packaging. Consumers' love of sustainable packaging makes them prefer paper packaging to plastic to protect their purchases.
However, according to a study, the overall environmental cost of using plastics in the beverage industry is nearly four and a half times lower than that of replacing plastics with alternative materials such as aluminum, paper and glass. In other words, each alternative is not perfect. The best way to minimize the impact on beverage packaging is to consider the life cycle of plastic products - beverage packaging is put on the market in a sustainable way, the packaging can be recycled, and the overall impact on the environment is the lowest.
Influenced by the concept of sustainable development, single material packaging has been paid attention to
At present, multi-layer and composite plastic packaging are widely used, but the recycling treatment after use is very troublesome (the films of different materials need to be stripped and then treated separately). Under the influence of ecological responsibility and local policies, major brands around the world began to promise to use single materials, such as Nordic chemical, Dow, ExxonMobil, Nova chemical of Canada and Saudi Basic Industries, and successively launched recyclable single material plastic films in recent years.
More and more countries and brand enterprises around the world promote circular economy to become an important factor affecting the application of recyclable single material plastic packaging. This measure aims to improve the efficiency of plastic recycling. The prevalence of COVID-19 has seriously restricted the growth of the global economy in 2020. However, research earlier this year showed that flexible packaging consumption showed a reverse growth in 2020, especially in Europe and North America.
Brand companies pay more and more attention to the sustainability of their business model
Environment, society and governance, commonly known as ESG strategy, are listed as a key part of the development of many companies because consumers and investors have a stronger ecological awareness. By improving the resource efficiency of enterprises, enterprises can improve their scores and possibly obtain more business value, including improving brand reputation, customer and employee loyalty and obtaining capital.
With the increasing demand for environmental protection actions and the win-win needs of enterprises to achieve economic profits and sustainable development goals, it can be said that in the near future, the development of more green, recyclable and sustainable plastic packaging materials will be the general trend of the development of the packaging industry.
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