Sustainable Food Packaging Experiences Growth

Sustainable packaging options are being embraced by a number of food and beverage companies. But due to the global economic slowdown this sector faces its own challenges in economic sustainability. However despite facing new challenges, the $35 billion U.S. market for food and beverage packaging has enough opportunities to grow in sustainable packaging. This has been estimated according to a new report, “Sustainable Packaging Market for Food and Beverage Worldwide” from SBI Reports, on metal, paper, plastic, glass and flexible packaging for the food and beverage industries.

Facts from the report

• 43 % of containers and packaging generated in municipal solid waste were recycled in 2007.
• Despite the prices of many recycled products touched an all-time high in 2008, the downturn in the U.S. economy brought precipitous declines in recyclables pricing.
• Prices of some recyclable items fell as much as 90%. Cardboard and mixed paper prices fell from $105 a ton to just $25. Plastic bottles fell from 25 cents a pound to 2 cents. Aluminum can price fell from 80 cents a pound to 40 cents.
• The food and beverage packaging world market is about $310 billion, with the U.S., Europe and Asia accounting for 90 percent.

Paper: Paper and corrugated combined together creates the biggest recycling opportunity. At 83 million tons they make up 33 percent of U.S. municipal solid waste. The report says, containers and packaging comprised of 16 percent of all municipal waste, making 40 million tons. It includes 4 million tons of folding cartons, 500,000 tons of milk cartons, and 1.4 million tons of miscellaneous paper-based packaging. The export of $2.6 billion in recovered paper materials in 2008 shows an increment of 18% since 2004 while only $65 million of imports in recovered paper materials were recorded. Despite being minimal import, it grew 20 percent since 2004.

Metal: Steel and aluminum recycling continues to be the beneficial areas due to their low cost relative to new production. The report says that for each ton of recycled steel, 2.5 tons of iron ore and half a ton of coal is saved. While recycling of aluminum needs 95 percent less energy than production from raw materials. Recycling rates of aluminum peaked in 1997 at 67 percent, it had dropped to 50% by 2003. Now the rate has slightly increased, with 54 percent of aluminum cans being recycled. The Aluminum Association aims for 75 percent of all beverage cans to be recycled by 2015.

Glass: Glass is costly to transport, but its main benefit is that glass containers can be reused many times before recycling. Building insulation is the primary destination for recycled glass, which can contain up to 40 percent recycled glass. According to the North American Insulation Manufacturers Association, around 300,000 tons of recycled glass is used for producing thermal and acoustical insulation per year.