Paper or Plastic?

For a time, paper was the main packaging selection.

That is until people internalized that it takes trees to make paper, and paper-based flexible packaging is laminated with plastic/aluminum or coated with resin, making it harder to recycle – according to Forbes.

Chemical engineer Beverly Sauer of Eastern Research Group (ERG), an independent research company put the theory to the test. In an energy and greenhouse gas analysis, prepared for the American Chemistry Council, ERG compared different plastic packaging with substitutes like paper. They found that “plastic packaging has lower impacts than substitute packaging.”

In fact, plastic had lower impacts across several categories like energy, water, waste, and global warming.

ERG's analysis showed that the numbers associated with plastic were significantly less, and yet we’re led to believe that plastic is the biggest evil, the discovery is daunting.

Yes, single-use plastics have been a larger problem in the argument at hand, but new legislation and more sustainable packaging materials like PET and rPET have made plastic more user-friendly. As noted in a TIME article, every time PET gets recycled, “it’s one more product that doesn’t end up in a landfill, and PET’s carbon footprint gets lower and lower”.

Because of this reduction, recycled PET (rPET) is almost like the new plastics and at least “1,574 million pounds of rPET are used in end markets annually in the U.S.”

Innovation like this is good news because it considers the future of our planet and the inhabitants that need it to thrive - like the creatures in the ocean.

So, with the question of paper or plastic?

When producers, brands, and consumers continue to align on reducing plastic waste, as plastic is reimagined, it still is a viable option.