Packaging Dilemma #1 Part 2

What ridged packaging containers are attractive with great shelf appeal, functional, maybe even innovative but are still environmentally friendly?

Obviously some products due to their chemical nature or function of use are limited as to what packaging you can use. This article will only address products where the choice of packaging container is up to the buyer.

The three packaging container materials that these we will examine are plastic, glass, and metal. These are the three most popular materials in ridged packaging and are many times interchangeable between the same products.

ll three packaging materials are recyclable, although for universal ease and efficient recycling glass bottles and jars and aluminum containers reign supreme. Although many plastics can be recycled in many cases coextruded plastic containers cannot be recycled. Containers made from PVC are the least recyclable and is some cases is even banned as a packaging material.

New plastic resins for packaging are being developed from renewable sources such as corn. You can read about this on the article Packaging from Bioplastics: a new era on PackagingBlog.com. This to me is one of the most promising advances in packaging.

Not only are some of these Bioplastic materials the most recyclable - even compostable (see Green cookies for all on PackaingBlog.com) the fact that less petroleum is needed in the manufacturing of the material in helping save the environment before the packaging container is even manufactured!

When you think of metal containers that are used in packaging you generally think of cans for food, aerosol cans such as for hair spray, or aluminum soda or beer cans. Aluminum cans are being recovered and recycled more than any other material - even in states that do not have deposits. Aluminum containers used in packaging are attractive and durable and are being used in an ever-expanding range of products such as personal care items and even wine. You can read more about this new phenomenon on the PackagingBlog article Aluminum Bottles keep growing in popularity.

Glass packaging can easily be recycled and is environmentally sound as long as it is not decorated by being chemically etched, metalized, or colored with environmentally unfriendly pigments. It is not only the residual effects of some of these processes that remain in or on the glass packaging, that can be an environmental factor, but the manufacturing processes that pose the risk. While much of the frosting and coloring of glass containers for packaging that is manufactured in the US is environmentally sound, glass containers produced in many foreign countries does not have to be produced with the same environmental controls that glass bottles and jars in the US and most of Europe must adhere to.

One container used in packaging offers 3 very significant environmental advantages is the Airless Dispensing System which is available with a self sealing mechanism in the dispensers actuator.

The fact that the system is airless (as product is dispensed, a piston moves up so air is not allowed back into the container) and that the actuator seals by it self so air does not come into contact with the product, means that the product inside will have greater stability and thus might not need as much or any chemical preservatives in the product. Less preservatives means lower environmental impact.

Airless packaging systems evacuate more product that any other packaging method. More of the product inside the container gets dispensed outside of the container meaning less residual product that will enter the waste stream. Happier consumer as they can use all virtually all of the product they paid for, cleaner environment because customers are not throwing product into a landfill

And the final environmental advantage of this airless packaging system is this all plastic dispenser has no metal parts and thus the entire contains and dispensing mechanism is 100% recyclable unlike any pumps with metal parts

In part 3 next week we will examine other ways your packaging choices can help or hurt the environment.