UNCOVER THE TRUTH OF WHICH MATERIAL IS BEST
The answer will surprise you...
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I’m a Little Rusty but Let’s Talk About Metal-Based Products
Aluminum has an excellent barrier function therefore keeping out air, light, liquid and microorganisms to preserve the contents of food, cosmetics and pharmaceutical products. It is lightweight and can be rolled into extremely thin foil and can be cast and joined and still retain much of its strength.
Cons: The production of each aluminum can pumps about twice as much carbon into the atmosphere
as each plastic bottle.
Glass is weather resistant and
a great barrier for packaging.
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Cons: Glass is a very costly material and has to be
handled with care.
Shattering Your Misconceptions of
Glass Packaging
Let's Talk About Forest-Based Products
Forest and forest-based products remove a net of 806 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalents annually. Forest-based products have a very
low carbon footprint- for instance in packaging, paperboard is half the carbon footprint of that of plastics and the difference in favour of paperboard is increasing - and they replace fossil-intensive products.
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Cons: Harvesting and transportation rates can be costly, it has poor barrier properties and it takes up more space once dumped in landfills.
Plastic-Based Products. Are They Really the Enemy?
Plastic has attributes that protect food well, making it useful in packaging. Plastic packaging can reduce food waste by extending shelf life and can reduce fuel consumption for transportation by bringing packaging weight down.
Con: Plastic is mostly based on oil, and oil is responsible for one-third of global carbon emissions.
Seaweed -
the Future
of Packaging
Seaweed is one of the
planet’s most abundant sources of biomass (growing at a rate
up to 1 metre per day), its production does not compete with food crops, requires no fertiliser or fresh water to produce and actively sequesters carbon dioxide. It also biodegrades in nature in just
4-6 weeks without the need
for industrial composting or special conditions.
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Cons: Technology is still being created to utilize this material.
