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Plastic Possibilities: Super-Sustainable Flexible PackagingPlastic Possibilities: Super-Sustainable Flexible Packaging

Sustainable packaging expert Robert Lilienfeld summarizes the eco-state of flexible packaging’s past, unpacks the present, and predicts the future.

Rick Lingle

June 7, 2021

1 Min Read
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EtiAmmos/Adobe Stock

When it comes to basic properties, flexible packaging has a special kind of superpower versus other types of packaging: from a product-to-package ratio, flexible packaging is extremely efficient.

In fact, flexible packaging is so efficient that single-use flexibles are usually a better packaging choice from a cradle-to-end-of-life assessment than other options that may be recyclable.

What happens when pouches, bags, and films are further engineered for a circular economy? Robert “Bob” Lilienfeld discusses that reality in a podcast interview with me, PlasticsToday Senior Technical Editor Rick Lingle.

I've known Bob for most of the 25 years he's been involved as a marketing executive, consultant, strategic planner, editor, writer, and communications expert. As President of Robert Lilienfeld Consulting, he works with materials suppliers, converters, trade associations, retailers, and brand owners. 

In this 17-minute podcast, you’ll hear Lilienfeld disclose…

  • Packaging efficiency benchmarks and eco-trends;

  • Why flex packs are victims of their own success;

  • What sustainability really means;

  • Three specific options for life-cycle optimized packaging;

  • The next generation of sustainably flexible packaging materials, which may surprise you as much as it did me.

Lilienfeld can be contacted via [email protected]

About the Author

Rick Lingle

Rick Lingle, now a freelancer, was Senior Technical Editor for PlasticsToday, and previously for Packaging Digest, until his retirement in December 2024. Lingle has been a packaging media journalist since 1985, specializing in food, beverage, and plastic markets. He earned a chemistry degree from Clarke College and worked in food industry R&D for Standard Brands/Nabisco and the R.T. French Co. He can be reached at [email protected].

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