Plastics, pouches to lead the way in packaging

Rapid innovations enabling lighter, more eco-friendly packaging have made plastics the "material of choice" in the packaging market, according to a study that included interviews with 71 leading beverage manufacturers and packaging supply chain firms.  The study, "Beverage Packaging Market Assessment-A Benchmark Study," was conducted by Proactive Worldwide Inc., on behalf of the packaging machinery trade group, PMMI (Arlington, VA).

The report states that the $22 billion U.S. beverage primary packaging market is dominated by plastics, with 40% of consumer goods companies using a variety of formats to attract consumers. Trailing plastics are aluminum (35%), glass (18%), and paper (5%). The most popular primary packaging format for beverages are bottles, claiming 55% of the marketplace. The researchers predict the market will exceed $28 billion by 2020, with plastics and bottles driving innovations and sales in that time.

"In the beverage segment, plastics are the leading materials, and bottles the dominant packaging format to attract consumers," said Charles D. Yuska, PMMI president and CEO. "The research we conducted clearly shows that plastic bottles will be the primary areas of focus for consumer goods companies looking to increase sales and gain brand awareness."

Beverage manufacturers also expect plastics to drive the majority of incremental beverage container sales through 2020, with survey respondents saying plastic is the medium in which green, eco-friendly/biodegradable packaging technologies will flourish. Pouches are expected to show the greatest percentage growth between 2010 and 2020, increasing as much as 105.9%, from a $545 million market to $1.378 billion.

In processing, new packaging equipment has made pouches cost-effective for high-volume operations, with companies now able run pouches as fast as other packaging formats. From an environmental perspective, pouches require much less landfill space than plastic bottles, and when compared to glass bottles, pouches require a small fraction of the space and shipping infrastructure. As an example: the beverage volume transported in a truckload of quart-sized pouches would require nine trucks of glass or plastic bottles. The report is available at PMMI.org.  —[email protected]