IS THERE A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE FOR PET PACKAGING?
In our latest Wider View, Sidel’s Luc Desoutter and Vincent Le Guen give their insight into the future of PET packaging, asking: is the use of this material even sustainable in the future – and if so, how?
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ackaging in general has come under a lot of fire in the past few years, with different types of plastics such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET) having been under intense scrutiny. Therefore, many brand owners and suppliers are taking increasing care when it comes to packaging and especially the type of packaging materials they opt for. Simultaneously, governments and regulators are attempting to decrease the overall amount of waste created on a global scale, sometimes going for quick fixes that can result in unintended consequences. The paradox about PET packaging on the one side is that PET bottles have become the symbol of marine litter and Single Use Plastics (SUP), and that on the other side, it is the most recyclable and the most recycled plastic material – a fact that is still not recognized enough. If you were to listen to its most vociferous critics, then the answer to the question, ‘Is there a sustainable future for PET packaging?’ would be a resounding ‘No’. But the reality is that PET is a packaging material that has contributed to the development of the beverage industry by giving access to safe drinking water to billions of people. It is a great resource with many advantages: safe, lightweight, transparent, re-sealable, shapeable, 100% recyclable, with outstanding mechanical as well as barrier properties at the price of a commodity. PET also
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has a very low environmental footprint compared to alternative non-plastic materials. The environmental costs of plastics in consumer goods are 3.8 times less than the alternatives. For an average European family, the impact of Greenhouse Gases (GHG) of all packaging materials used is only 1.7%, of which plastics production only represents about 4% of fossil resources with most of them being recyclable. Meanwhile, bottle grade PET consumption is equal to less than 6% of total plastics production and far less than 1% of fossil resources, so banning this specific packaging material will not solve the environmental issues. The packaging industry is looking after our planet and safeguarding our environment: there is growing momentum to reduce waste by searching for alternatives to optimize secondary and tertiary packaging, eliminating unnecessary plastics. In short, the problem that requires all our attention is the leakage of waste to the environment and especially into the sea. But this pollution is neither exclusive to PET nor to SUP. The focus should be on waste management, including the rationalization of waste streams by favouring easy to recycle and higher value materials as well as concentrating waste streams to a lower number with higher volumes.
