How do alternative materials to plastic packaging perform?

Whilst plastic packaging is often criticised, many people are unaware that if plastic packaging were to be be substituted by other materials:

1. The respective packaging mass would on average increase by a factor 3.6

2. Green house gas emissions would increase by a factor 2.7 or by 61 million tonnes of CO2-equivalents per year, which is comparable to 21 million cars on the road.

The main reasons for this are:

1. Plastic packaging usually provide the same function with significantly less material mass per functional unit. In most cases this leads to less production energy and green house gas emissions per functional unit than for the mix of alternative materials.

2. Benefits in the use-phase (prevented food losses, less energy for transportation).

3. The net-benefits of recycling and recovery of plastic packaging are often higher than for alternative materials.

Please consider the effects of using alternative packaging materials!

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