Many businesses are looking to make the switch from plastic to paper packaging to pledge their commitment to the environment. Before giving up plastic for good, businesses will weigh up the pros and cons of each material to determine which will provide a more sustainable packaging solution.
With competitive price and timely delivery, Mingyi sincerely hope to be your supplier and partner.
To help you decide, we’ve compiled some of the advantages and disadvantages of plastic and paper packaging below.
The main advantage of plastic packaging is its price. Plastic can be produced quickly and cheaply, which is why it has become such a popular material for packaging across the globe. Other benefits of plastic packaging include its durable and lightweight qualities, making it ideal for transporting goods safely.
However, from April , the UK Government is introducing a Plastic Tax on all packaging manufactured in, or imported into, the UK. This means that businesses using packaging that contains less that 30 per cent recycled material will have to pay a tax, so plastic packaging may no longer be the cheaper option.
Plastic packaging is becoming increasingly recognised for its damaging environmental qualities. Plastic can take thousands of years to biodegrade, so single-use plastic packaging is highly polluting. Even plastic packaging that claims to be recyclable often ends up in landfill – especially with recycling capabilities varying from council to council in the UK.
When plastic does degrade, small plastic molecules release toxins which can poison soil, rendering local land infertile. These molecules can also infiltrate waterways and damage delicate ecosystems.
The plastic production process is also damaging to the environment. Most plastic is produced as cheaply as possible in factories based in developing countries where there are limited laws on pollution. These factories release copious amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and many also discharge toxic waste and manufacturing by-products into local bodies of water.
Plastic packaging can be known for its lack of protection as well, air bags for instance are transmitting shock within the package as opposed to absorbing it. Along with being pushed down to the bottom of a package through transit and then bursting on impact, deeming it useless. A similar effect can be seen when using bubblewrap, the bubbles burst and then provide little to no protection for the product inside.
Unlike its plastic counterpart, paper packaging does not damage the environment. Paper packaging can be 100 per cent recyclable and is easy to recycle for customers – packaging can simply be disposed of in home recycling bins, unlike many types of ‘recyclable’ plastic.
Paper packaging derives from natural sources so no harmful, carbon dioxide-emitting production processes are involved. Protega Global’s paper packaging products use paper from FSC-certified forests which are managed sustainably, ensuring that there is no detrimental impact to the environment with excessive deforestation.
Although paper packaging may be initially more expensive than plastic packaging, it can be more cost-effective for businesses in the long run. Protega Global’s paper packaging products, such as Paper Bubble Wrap, increase packing speeds by up to 50 per cent as well as reducing breakages by 50 per cent. You will also use 80 per cent less space when compared to plastic bubble wrap.
Paper packaging is also an excellent way to promote your brand ethos. With more and more consumers looking to spend their money ethically, positioning your brand as environmentally friendly can give sales a boost. Packaging products in paper communicates your sustainable values.
There are also alternatives to wood fibre packaging such as agri-waste paper. Made from crops such as sugar cane and wheat, which can further improve businesses carbon emissions.
Some paper packaging – especially low-quality products – can be less durable than plastic packaging. To solve this problem, Protega Paper has a cutting-edge design with creases and crimps offering superior strength.
Paper packaging can cost more than plastic, however, with innovative packing machines, clever packing techniques and space-saving product design, paper packaging can save your business money with increased efficiency and reduced packaging materials.
The other disadvantages of paper that are widely misconstrued are water intensive production, strength of paper, deforestation, and weight during transport. We debunk these packaging problems in our one of our recent blogs here
Get in touch with Protega Global today to discuss switching to paper packaging.
In the market, there are different materials and alternatives for packaging, but plastic packaging is always considered the most recommended choice due to its high strength, low cost, and high flexibility. Over the years, plastic packaging is still popular and people are using it more often.
Due to many useful functions, plastic packaging serves in many different ways in modern life.
Plastic packaging allows manufacturers to include important product information on the packaging such as preservatives, nutrients, product usability, recommended amounts, and more.
To preserve food longer, manufacturers are using plastic packaging. This will reduce the potential for product waste and allow consumers to use the product for a longer time than before.
Read more: Plastic film and barrier features help protect food
Plastic packaging prevents products from spilling by keeping them inside the bag.
To protect vulnerable products during transportation, plastic packaging is the best choice. It can also protect food from moisture, gases, insects, microorganisms, pollution, and light.
Compared to other alternative materials, plastic packaging allows manufacturers to transport products from long distances. Plastic packaging makes transportation more efficient by saving space.
Plastic can be as strong as steel. This durability protects your product — from perishable foodstuffs to fragile keepsakes to expensive electronics — from the wear and tear associated with production and shipping. Plastics packaging ensures your product shows up on store shelves or in your customers’ homes looking as good as new.
Durable plastics consume less energy during the production process than metals, too, in part due to how light they are.
Plastics are prized for being lightweight. Though over 50% of all European goods are packaged in plastics, these plastics only account for 17% of all packaging weight.
With this winning combination of being lightweight and strong, plastic packaging protects your product without adding bulk. It also saves you in manufacturing and shipping costs.
The lightness of plastic is also closely tied to its superior sustainability. Its comparatively low weight contributes to its lower energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions over other materials.
Though many think plastics are a detriment to the environment, the opposite is true, such as plastic’s resistance to corrosion and its bio-inertness, make plastics very resource-efficient.
Plastic packaging is also easily and frequently recycled.
You can mold plastic into essentially limitless shapes. Think of the vast variety of plastics packaging you see all the time.
If you want to learn more, please visit our website Plastic Shipping Bags.
It’s hard to think of a packaging material more versatile than plastic. Here are just a few things it can do:
Fit packaging to your product precisely with a custom-made mold.
Form packaging into a box, sphere, cylinder, or any other shape.
Seal a product tightly or provide a simple open frame or hanger.
Package something as small as a button cell battery or as large as a pallet of bicycles.
Hold hot foods, cold liquids, acids, or bases.
Due to its lightweight, plastic packaging saves over alternatives when it comes to shipping and transportation costs. It saves both in the cost to get products to consumers and in the cost to get post-consumer materials to recycling centers.
Except for the long list of advantages of plastic packaging, there are also some disadvantages that make use doubt the characteristics of plastic.
Let’s learn some disadvantages that have become the most common downfall of the use of plastic packagings.
In comparison with other packaging material, the most common downfall of plastic is that they have low melting points.
This means the plastic packaging doesn’t withstand in an area where the temperature is a little high.
Due to low melting points, plastics cannot be used in furnaces. Some plastic products are highly flammable such as nylons, polyethylene, acrylics, and polyesters.
These materials are commonly used in offices and home appliances. Low melting point also makes plastic a fire hazard material.
Plastics are non-degradable materials. The decay of this material is not easy. It might take centuries and cause pollution in the environment.
Due to the strong bonding of intermolecular forces, the molecules in the plastic material are constituted.
This property makes sure that the structure of plastic neither decomposes nor corrodes for several thousand years.
The plastic material that is disposed of indecently restricted is washed away by water reservoirs. The plastic clogs the natural sources of water and floats on reservoirs.
This causes pollution and makes water unsightly and useless for humans.
The plastic material that is used in means of human consumption purposes, such as food packaging bags contains harmful components.
Improper disposal of plastic packages causes many harmful disadvantages and leads plastic to find its way into natural water bodies.
Here they will decay or resolve after thousands of years ago due to their nature of non-degradability. For animals, littered plastic means death because they can accidentally eat them and die because of choking.
Moreover, in the manufacturing of plastic fabrication, many destructive chemicals are included in the form of colorants, stabilizers, and high enduring substances.
Almost all the time, these chemicals are not undergone the ecological risk approval process and have a negative impact on human nature, and the well-being of the environment is disturbed with these materials.
Phthalates are a common example of plastic fabrication that is commonly used in the manufacturing of Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC).
No matter how much plastic is recycled but there are always some that are remaining untouched and uncollected in dump sites and waste yards.
Currently, it is difficult to find a material that can replace plastic packaging because of its outstanding advantages. Plastic packaging plays a very important role in the food, beverage, consumer goods industry, etc.
And to limit their disadvantages, especially the bad effects on the environment, we need to be conscious of environmental protection such as:
Bao Ma Production & Trading Co Ltd is complying with the ISO - which ensures the quality control system and the ability to produce different materials and sizes of poly bags and rolls, including:
So, please contact us via hotline: (028) 999 – 096 314 and let us be honored to serve you in the best way possible.
Address: No. 21 Tan Tao Industrial Park, Road No. 3, Tan Tao A Ward, Binh Tan District, HCMC
: (028) 999 – 096 314
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