Sitting straight in answers for many questions hatched from the people and manufacturers who are looking ways to experience and introduce the environment friendly, sustainable and easy to reuse packaging products is Lightweight Packaging. This Lightweight Packaging doesn’t needs any introduction as it has been captivating attention of the industries through its several advantages.
Lightweight packaging aim is to offer lightweight solution for the packaging, even so, it has to be strict towards its performance aspects. According to a model “Packaging Efficiency”, developed by PwC, package life cycle has to meet five major areas that include: resources used for the creation of package, the ability of package to protect the product, display efficient, transport friendly and finally the kind of impact a package leaves at the end.
Many industries are seeing progressive benefits since the adoption of lightweight packaging and several packaging production companies are endeavoring to embrace it as this way of packaging can reduce overall costs, save energy during the production and transportation apart from its primary benefits lightweight and recycling efficiency. Especially, the food and beverage industry is striving to rack up the shelves with products that weigh less through the usage of different packaging materials and methods.
Materials Contributing for Lightweight Packaging
There are a number of packaging materials lined up to reduce the weight of package, and they vary based on the product type, temperature, mode of transport and many other conditions. Here are some packaging materials working well in lowering package weight.
Paper
With the most significant quality lightweight, paper can smartly replace the traditional steel and metal packaging. Packing with metal is costly and unsafe to the environment, where as paper is a best packaging option due to its lightweight and biodegradable inherent properties alongside sophisticated properties – support to various package shapes and ready to reheat.
Aluminium
Now-a-days Aluminium is a transcending packaging material that can effectively shield the product from many contaminants, while weighing less. Beverage cans today weighs 13grams for 330 ml aluminium with the wall thickness of 0.097 mm, alongside the weight efficiency and flexibility, aluminium potentially decreases the energy consumption and shortens the emission of CO2 during the transport time. Saving a single gram from each can, saves nearly 200,000 tonnes of aluminium per year globally.
Biopolymers
Petroleum-based polymers are non-biodegradable and notorious for their negative effects on the environment.To overcome the concerns incurred by them, Biopolymer-based lightweight packaging materials were introduced. Natural biopolymers like proteins and starches and synthetic bio-polymers like poly lactic acid are highly used in the packaging of food, pharmaceutical products and consumer goods packaging due to their compostable, cost-effective and eco-friendly properties.
Mono-Material Packaging
Mono-material Packaging immensely benefits environment as it uses a single material for the entire product packaging, which can be recycled easily rather than package comprising of different materials.
Taking this idea further, LINPAC Packaging has implemented super lightweight mono-material rPET trays in support to their in-house lightweighting programme. In addition to lightweight, these innovative trays are 100% recyclable and capable of reducing carbon footprint.
