It’s generally understood at all levels – government, industry, and consumer – that plastic packaging should move (indeed, is moving) towards greener alternatives. Neil Osment, from packaging market research company NOA, explores the opportunities for corrugated and folding cartons, looking specifically at food packaging that needs a liner.
It’s a startling statistic, but 22.3m tonnes of plastic packaging are used every year across Europe. That’s a lot of plastic, but, at the same time, this offers a huge opportunity for alternatives.
At NOA we have been looking specifically at the European packaging market for pots, trays, and tubs, which amounts to 3.37m tonnes annually. This packaging is designed to contain liquid or ‘wet’ food, and so needs some sort of barrier or lining.
We’ve concentrated our research on four areas: chilled food, frozen food, dairy, and ambient fruit and vegetables. Within these sectors, in total some 200,000 million packs (pots, tubs or trays) are used annually, of which around 45% are made of rigid plastic. The remaining 55% includes foil, folding cartons and/or an element of flexible plastic to provide the barrier lining. Currently, folding cartons make up about 17%.
There is a clear opportunity to grab the rigid plastic element of the pots, trays, and tubs market. That’s some 90,000 million units each year. In terms of tonnage, it means between 1.1 and 1.5 million tonnes could move away from rigid plastics to an alternative.
Who could be the winners? We think some 75% will be grabbed by folding cartons, and 25% will go to microflute corrugated.
What could be the hurdles to moving to alternatives, or indeed the accelerants? Legislation – or, rather, the snail’s pace that legislation moves at; consumer pressure; retailer and brand owner enthusiasm or otherwise; the speed of technical advances – these could all influence the size of the switch and the timing of the switch.
We are certain that around 0.7m tonnes is on its way to switching away from rigid plastic to the alternative of fibre pack with plastic liner. These could take the form of corner glued trays, formed trays, built-up containers, or microflute corrugated coated packs.
If we look at other packaging opportunities, not needing a barrier coating, we had previously identified 0.44m tonnes that are in the process of moving across. Add that to the 0.7m tonnes and we have approximately 1.14m tonnes that could be making that switch away from rigid plastic.
We are clearly on a journey, and while the trajectory may not be straight, or even straightforward, plastics substitution is surely a prize worth going for. And who can play their part? Everyone. From mill owners, to converters, to brand owners, to retailers.
NOA have just produced their latest multi-client report on barrier board and coating estimates, which provides much more detail on the significant and specific opportunities for barrier board fibre packaging. For more information, visit https://noa.uk.net/.
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