Food, beverage and nutritional supplement producers are all getting on board with flexible product packaging. According to a 2016 Harris Poll, around 83% of brand owners use it for their products.

Consumers also love flexible packaging, with 71% preferring it over traditional packing methods. If it’s the future of product packaging, then the future is already here.

The next steps focus on sustainability and reducing environmental impacts, and ePac Flexible Packaging accomplishes this goal in several ways.

Here are few ways flexible packaging can benefit your small business.

1- Reducing Energy and Resource Usage

Green packaging requires far less energy and resources to produce than other packaging methods. Let’s put this into perspective with a few statistics. Packaging 60 pounds of beverage requires 1.5 pounds of flexible plastic. In comparison, packaging that same amount requires 3 pounds of aluminum, 6 pounds of rigid PET and a whopping 50 pounds of glass.

A flexible standup pouch consumes 0.45 Megajoules per every 8 ounces: An aluminum can consumes twice that much at 0.99 Megajoules, and a glass bottle with a metal cap consumes 3.36 Megajoules per 8 ounces.

2- Minimizing Carbon Emissions

Modern flexible packaging also reduces environmental impact by cutting down on emissions. Wholesale zip lock bags from this site improves storage and transport efficiency is an important key to reaching this goal. Flexible packaging offers a significantly higher product to package ratio: 35:1 versus 21:1 with aluminum cans and 1:1 with glass bottles.

As a result, flexible pouches do not require as much transport and storage space. The amount of product that can be packaged in one truckload of flexible packages, for example, requires 26 truckloads of glass jars. That makes a huge difference when it comes to carbon emissions: One standup pouch generates 0.02 kilograms of CO2 for every 8 ounces compared to glass bottles’ 0.29 kilograms per 8 ounces.

3- Recyclable and Bio-Friendly Materials

Concerns have been raised about single-use plastics, but new flexible packaging addresses many of those issues. Keeping materials out of landfills is critical, and packaging films such as CharterNEX’s Green Arrow line help achieve this objective using innovative materials. Its fully recyclable barrier and non-barrier lamination films prevent moisture and oxygen from getting inside and comply with How2Recycle program requirements.

Films with bio-based resins use renewable resources such as sugar cane and starch. Some of its multi-layer films include recycled materials, featuring 40% post-consumer recycled content.

4- Product Freshness and Safety

Freshness and safety are high priorities when it comes to product packaging, and flexible packaging achieves these goals as well. Strong barrier films prevent the transmission of moisture to or from package contents while also protecting them against temperature extremes and oxidization.

Besides odor and moisture resistance, resealable options include powder-proof zippers and child resistant packaging with recyclable zippers. Ideal for nutritional supplements and medications, these child-resistant versions are easily resealable and use press-to-close zippers to keep children from accessing their contents.

The Bottom Line:

Ground-breaking developments in flexible packaging enhance its sustainability, increase its environmental impact and improve product freshness and safety. With so many customization options, your product packaging ensures that you deliver superior quality, convenience and value to your customers.