For so long, plastics have been associated with images of landfills and our mass, throwaway consumer habits. The criticisms levelled against the industries, brands and mindsets that powered our reliance on single-use plastics were justified. However, an evolution is underway.
Consumers are prioritising ideals like sustainability and the circular economy, policymakers are cracking down on single-use plastics, while advances in technology and manufacturing have revolutionised the recyclability of the material itself.
As a result, many of the criticisms once levelled against plastics are becoming myths. While there are still plenty of bad, legacy plastics, huge strides have been made. Today, the global warming potential of rHDPE plastics is ~2.5x lower than, for example, paperboard. But what is driving the evolution in plastics? And how close are we to overcoming those former criticisms?
There are many driving forces behind the evolution of plastics. Conscious consumerism, for example, is growing in Australia. According to research from the WWF, eight in 10 Australians want manufacturers and retailers to be responsible for reducing, reusing and recycling their plastic packaging including soft plastics. Meanwhile, at state and federal levels, governments have introduced – or are introducing – regulations to reduce single-use plastics. The need for change is driven by consumers, policymakers and climate change, but the ability to make it happen is through advances in manufacturing and technology.
Today, manufacturing facilities are bigger, better and more technology-driven than ever. Whether it’s materials like rHDPE, a non-toxic, food safe, cost-effective, and indefinitely recyclable plastic, or state-of-the art, automated machinery that can produce a greater volume of product, with a fraction of the associated energy or CO2 outputs. Or even the colourants, processes and software that make it infinitely quicker to sort recyclable from non-recyclable materials.
It’s through these advancements, that one of the biggest findings – that 78 per cent of Australians want all new plastic products to contain recycled plastic – can be met.
Paperboard is one of the materials widely considered to be more environmentally-friendly than plastic. There is a strong presumption among consumers that paperboard is a ‘natural’ material, because it is produced from trees. However, paperboard doesn’t exist ‘in nature’; it’s human-made through large-scale processes that have environmental costs. Based on a detailed Lifetime Cycle Analysis, conducted by Sphera in the USA, rHDPE plastic carries many benefits over paperboard.
The LCA considered the full life cycle of a PakTech beverage multipack packaging product, from cradle-to-grave. This includes recycled HDPE pellet procurement, plastic handle production, forestry management and logging, paperboard production and conversion into finished beverage packaging, distribution packaging, filling, end-of-life, and transport at all stages in the life cycle. Based on the results of that LCA, when compared to rHDPE, a cardboard carton box emits 4-5 times (4-5x) more CO2 eq. into the atmosphere and contributes up to 10-11 times more impact on human health PM2.5 eq. It also uses up to 213 per cent more water, 475 per cent more mineral and fossil resources, and 500 per cent more energy demand.
It is findings like this that drive us at PakTech. Over approximately one billion recycled milk bottles have been collected, shredded, and extruded into pellets to create PakTech products globally, using 100 per cent recycled material. That’s equivalent to 63,000 tonnes of plastic saved from landfills and oceans, and 54 acres of land saved from landfill waste by repurposing recycled containers. So while plastics have long been viewed negatively, advancements in processes, technology and manufacturing have reshaped the industry – and the very material itself. rHDPE plastics offer substantial environmental benefits, including lower carbon emissions and reduced resource consumption compared to alternatives like paperboard.
Today, brands – from national FMCG retailers to family-run breweries – will prioritise the manufacturers and materials that will enable them to meet their customers’ demands, and comply with government mandates and internal sustainability goals. rHDPE plastics, so long associated with landfill, are a key component of the circular economy, proving that the material, when responsibly produced and recycled, can play a central role in the future of sustainable packaging.
