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Traditionally the food and beverage packaging industry was
dominated by glass. Many properties of glass make it an ideal
packaging material: it is odorless and chemically inert,
impermeable to gasses and vapor, insulating, and transparent. Glass
can be shaped and coloured, and it is reusable and recyclable. By
comparison, plastic packaging such as polyethylene terephthalate
(PET) can have variable permeability to light and vapors, and its
reuse and recyclability are currently not comparable with glass.
For example the typical shelf life of beer in glass containers is
significantly longer than that of beer in PET bottles. However, the
concerns of both consumers and producers of food and beverages
extend beyond the material's ability to maintain product freshness.
In the modern globalized marketplace, cost and affordability play
an ever-more-significant role.
Since its introduction as a viable packaging material, plastics
such as PET have continued to grow in popularity. PET packaging is
generally much lighter than glass, reducing the cost and CO2
footprint of product transportation and improving affordability.
The costs of raw materials and production processes for PET
packaging manufacture are also lower than glass, on a per unit
basis, giving it a further cost advantage. PET can also be combined
with other plastics in packaging materials to endow it with
different properties. In some instances, these blended plastics
lower the overall packaging weight. Figures 1 and 2, which use data
from Packaging World magazine, illustrate the influence exerted by
plastic and PET packaging, specifically in the North American
beverage market.
Thanks to preferred use of plastic as a packaging material over
glass, packaging represents 26% of the orld's plastic output. The
main niche retained by glass packaging over PET is the alcoholic
beverage sector. Glass offers lower permeability to O2 and CO2 than
plastic, which means alcohol can be stored longer in glass. In the
soft drinks sector, this is less of an issue. With the obvious cost
advantage, PET has become the dominant packaging material in that
sector.
Despite the apparent advantages of plastic packaging materials
over traditional glass materials, there is a growing awareness of
the environmental impact of using plastics. With this in mind, will
the demand for plastic packaging in the future be affected by
environmental concerns?
Recycling Issues
It is difficult to directly compare the environmental impact of
PET versus glass. Studies often fail to capture the effect of the
full life cycle of a product on the environment - especially what
happens to packaging at the end of its life cycle. Even when
recycling meets ISO standards, studies of the environmental impacts
of materials vary. These life cycle assessments often fail to
account for the real life, practical issues of waste disposal and
recycling - such as waste collection infrastructure and waste
sorting - which leave much of the world's plastic waste in landfill
or in oceans.
One source of plastic waste that finds its way into the wider
environment originates from the PET packaging industry. In 2017
total global demand for PET was 21.5 million mt of which 75 to 80%
was used to make PET bottles. However, around 7.3 million mt all
the PET production. Currently all recycled PET comes from PET
bottles. 6 million mt of this recycled material goes into other
plastics streams and only 1.3 million mt goes into making new
plastic bottles.
Glass, on the other hand, can be infinitely recycled back into
glass packaging without any loss of quality. Therefore, glass
recycling has a much more direct impact on demand for new packaging
material. According to FEVE, the European Container Glass
Federation, the use of one ton of cullet or recycled glass reduces
CO2 generation by 580kg in the glass industry, and it saves 1.2
tons of virgin raw materials. Thanks in part to the greater
suitability of glass packaging for recycling, in many regions the
infrastructure surrounding glass bottle collection and cullet use
is much more developed compared than that of plastic collection.
For example, in the EU 74% of all
glass bottles are collected and recycled (see Figure 3).
Reuse Opportunities
A further issue is that PET is not, at least in the public's
perception, infinitely re-useable - although a debate still exists
over the impact of reusing plastic bottles multiple times. There
are currently numerous examples, particularly in developing regions
where glass bottles are cleaned and reused, that show a reduced
demand for new packaging material.
One specific example is the company HCCBPL, the Indian bottling
arm of Coca-Cola. The company offers a program in which reusable
glass bottles can be returned to the shop in which they were
purchased and sent back to the plant for re-use. A similar
initiative is being carried out by Diageo in India, which is the
country's largest spirits producer. Since 2017, Diageo has been
collaborating with its glass suppliers to use returnable glass
bottles across a number of its most popular brands. The adoption of
these initiatives on a wider scale will further demonstrate the
environmental advantage of glass as a packaging material compared
to plastic.
Public Perception of Plastics for Packaging
A recent study by Plymouth University found that a third of the
fish and shellfish consumed by humans contained plastic. In
addition, researchers have found that 267 species of birds and 61%
of turtles tested also had plastic in their digestive tracts. With
growing awareness of these and similar impacts of the use of
plastic packaging and the mismanagement of waste plastic packaging,
public perceptions towards packaging are beginning to change. With
it, consumer trends are also shifting. Recent surveys by the market
research group Mintel found that 79% of consumers in the UK think
that plastic recycling should be incentivized, suggesting that a
vast majority of consumers are concerned about plastic waste.
Other studies suggest a consumer preference for glass over
plastic as packaging material. In a survey of European consumers,
FEVE found that 85% of respondents preferred glass as a packaging
material and that 73% thought it was a safer material for drink
packaging.
It appears as though this overwhelming shift in public
perception is beginning to have an impact on the behavior of
businesses and legislators. For example, the EU is planning to
place a ban on plastic straws, stirrers, and cutlery with the aim
of ensuring that 55% of all plastics are recycled by 2030. In the
UK, all major supermarkets have agreed to eradicate all unnecessary
single-use plastics by 2025, while the UK government has proposed
its own plan to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste by 2042. In
India, Prime Minister Modi has pledged to abolish all single-use
plastics by 2022.
Conclusions
Although PET has a number of advantages as a food packaging
material over glass, including cost and weight, the impact of using
plastics as a packaging material on the environment is becoming a
much more visible issue. The debate over what is the most
appropriate food and beverage packaging material, glass, PET or
other alternative materials such as aluminium is set to intensify
in the coming years. As attitudes shift and the pressure
intensifies on governments to address the issue of plastic waste,
we could see a reversal of the trends observed the last few decades
with consumers and producers opting for glass or other alternatives
such as aluminium over plastics.
Coming Soon - IHS Markit Plastics Sustainability
Multi-Client Study
The study will address the following key issues:
What is global impact on virgin plastics from sustainability
initiatives spanning "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Recover" both today
and over the next decades?
What are the forecast supply/demand for both a base and
alternative case - with consistent assumptions across- reflecting
the high risk/high recycle use?
What is the potential impact on petrochemical monomer and
feedstock demand resulting from plastics sustainability
development?
What is the current status and trends for global and regional
regulatory actions affecting plastics demand and their
implications?
For further details, contact: Robin Waters Associate Director,
Research and Analysis | Robin.Waters@ihsmarkit.com
Posted 08 August 2018 by Matthew Hancock, Principal Analyst, Soda Ash, IHS Markit