Plastic has always been a delicate and controversial issue: since the plastic boom for industrial use in the sixties, plastic has been said everything and the opposite of everything over the years.

Exalted and promoted on the one hand, because of the unique characteristics that make it still necessary in some areas - such as hydraulic, electrical, electronic and medical devices - and demonised and then banned with the recrimination of being unsustainable and harmful to the environment.

Imagen: unsplash.com

 In recent years, plastic has been the subject of a massive media campaign under the slogan "plastic free", which as stated by the director of Unionplast Libero Cantarella, has often brought more damage than benefits, because it spreads the ideology of a world without plastic which is not practicable, and this ideology as well is not entirely aware of the often false or incomplete premises on which it is based.

The health emergency experienced in the last two years has contributed in part to rehabilitate plastics in the eyes of the public, especially concerning food packaging: lightweight, economical, easy to process and, above all, safe to seal and keep products for a long time, plastic packaging has proved to be precious and in many cases impossible to replace.

Image: @atoms - unsplash.com

However, if the safety feature of plastic packaging is established, many truths are not yet widely known about its actual sustainability.

But what are these truths? Let us try to shed some light on the issue.

The recyclable plastic packaging

Firstly, the plastic packaging industry is increasingly moving in the direction of the use of recyclable plastic materials: in Packstyle, for example, we offer different flexible packaging alternatives, flat and stand-up bags, made of high barrier recyclable film. This means for us not only to help transforming waste into a potential resource, but also to save the consumption of natural resources, unfortunately not infinite, according to the circular economy model.

Image: pixabay.com

Sustainability of plastic packaging

The second aspect to keep in mind when considering the environmental impact of plastic packaging, is its effective sustainability; we are not talking about the recyclability of plastic material alone - which is not always realisable today - but its overall impact on the environment by analysing its entire life cycle (LCA): as highlighted in this previous article of our Blog, each type of material should be considered more or less sustainable based on the environmental impact of each stage of its life cycle, from resource extraction and processing to production, from packaging and transport to its use until the end of life and possibility of recycling. Only in this way is it possible to have a realistic overview on the environmental sustainability of a material.

Flexible plastic bags are more sustainable than glass and cans

Here is a concrete example: a recent study commissioned by the association Flexible Packaging Europe (FPE) and conducted by the German Institute of Heidelberg for Energy and Environmental Research (IFEU) has analysed the life cycle (LCA) of the multi-material flexible pouches used to pack olives and pasta sauces, compared to the alternatives of glass cans and steel cans, used until now in the European market.

The comparison showed the advantages of flexible bags in almost all categories detected by the LCA: in the category related to climate change (the so-called "carbon footprint") have shown a lower impact of more than 60% compared to rigid alternatives; another interesting result of the research is that the possibility of packaging recycling does not always play a key role on overall environmental performance: assuming a collection of 100% for recycling purposes, the impact on all packaging systems does not change its classification.

As Frank Wellenreuther, project manager of IFEU concludes: "the choice of pouch bags in multi-material for the packaging of pasta sauces or olives is recommended compared to the alternative packaging systems commonly used. Flexible packaging formats have less impact on the environment and their potential can be further increased with higher recycling rates”.

Image: flexpack-europe.org

The plastic paradox: more facts and less false truths

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Chris DeArmitt, an American scientist among the leading experts in plastics, came to similar conclusions in his book "The Plastics Paradox. Facts for at Brighter Future" - based on over 400 articles and studies worldwide -  he demolishes many of the false beliefs about plastic and its impact on the environment. 

The most striking one? The belief that polypropylene (one of the most widely used plastics) does not degrade before 500 years and beyond, when instead it takes only 1 at room temperature to oxidize and degrade.

As for the packaging, the scientist brings to our attention precise and proven data that demonstrate how, analyzed according to the LCA model, plastic packaging is significantly more sustainable than alternative materials commonly considered to be more "green", especially because of the lower weight that leads to a significant reduction in carbon dioxide emissions during processing, transport and disposal. Given this, even more true if you consider flexible packaging, which in addition to the greater lightness and less expenditure of material, can also boast greater strength and better preservation of products, thus reducing food waste.

Image: packstyle.com

We conclude by paraphrasing the thought of Dearmitt, who admits that, today, the perfect material does not exist. Everyone has pros and cons, but to be considered with correctness and completeness of information, without false preconceptions and easy prejudices.

For our part, we are aware that the best way to go is to research and constant improve the disposal systems to reach the total recycling of plastics: we strongly believe in the circular economy model, as a key to a truly sustainable future.