Packaging is an important focus today as businesses and other organizations strive to create the most efficient environmental “footprint” for their products. The packaging uses account for over a third of sales and captive use of thermoplastic resins.
Relative to other packaging materials such as steel, aluminum, glass, paper, etc., plastic-based packaging is 39 to 100 percent of the total North American market demand for packaging categories analyzed in this study.
This report gives a snapshot of the environmental impacts of the current overall mix of plastic packaging in several categories, and the environmental impacts of the overall mix of alternative types of packaging that might be used as substitutes.
The report was prepared for The Plastics Division of the American Chemistry Council (ACC) by Franklin Associates, A Division of Eastern Research Group (ERG) in April 2018.