Plastic packaging
Thermoplastics are the most frequently used polymers to manufacture packaging. Under the effect of heat, they soften, can deform and be shaped.
Once cooled, their shape is set. This exclusive property of thermoplastics allows them to be recycled as they can be heated again and reshaped.
Much more recent than glass, metals, or papers-cardboards, plastics have taken a predominant share in the packaging sector.
They are the leading packaging material worldwide, in terms of the volume of material processed and value in this sector ahead of paper-cardboard, and first in all markets because they enable lighter packaging.
Faced with increasingly complex specifications, manufacturers must choose polymers based on the nature of the product to be packaged and the required preservation requirements.
Thus, the following packaging elements are found on the market:
- Polystyrene (PS): yogurt pots, ...
- Expanded Polystyrene (EPS): supports, trays, boxes, ...
- Low-density Polyethylene (LDPE): flexible films, bags, ...
- High-density Polyethylene (HDPE): milk bottles, boxes, ...
- Polypropylene (PP): closure systems, lids, trays, pots, flacons, flexible films, ...
- Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET): water bottles, pots, trays, ...
- Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC): trays, boxes, blisters, ...
- Complexes that combine several polymers or other materials to improve barrier properties and resistance of thin packaging: flexible films, lids, trays, ...
The impossibility of recycling all the plastic packaging put on the market, associated with plastic pollution on land and in the oceans, makes this material "an environmental scourge to eradicate." Even though they represent only a relative part of this pollution worldwide.
This desire to reduce plastic in packaging, or even its complete elimination, is reinforced by the initiative of major brands that have signed voluntary reduction commitments and by that of retailers who have clearly positioned themselves for the removal of plastic in their stores.