Give That Packaging an Award! The 2015 DuPont packaging awards revealed some of the sustainable strides made by plastics packaging makers

摘要

Note: This article continues the series of updates in Plastics Engineering from Plastics Make it Possible~R, an initiative sponsored by America's Plastics Makers~R through the ACC. Plastic packaging is slowly but inexorably gaining recognition for its contributions to sustain-ability, based in part on fairly recent analyses of its environmental footprint. For example, a previous article in this publication by the ACC highlighted a large 2014 study1 that compared plastic packaging to alternatives in six packaging categories. The study found that replacing existing plastic packaging with non-plastic alternatives in the USA would: 1. require 4.5 times as much packaging material by weight; 2.increase energy use by 80%; and 3.result in 130% more global warming potential. Results were similar in a 2010 study in Europe.