Flexible packaging, such as pliable plastic bags and wrappers, has long been used for storing food items like salad and frozen vegetables. In addition to confectionary, baked goods and snack food companies, we’re seeing more and more companies start using flexible packaging.
 
A notable example is Heinz, who has started producing “squeeze and stir” soups in flexible tubes as an alternative to their iconic red tins. A tube costs less than a tin of soup and is easier to slip into a handbag or briefcase. Although it’s touted as a greener alternative to tins, the tubes themselves aren’t recyclable. It’s safe to say that, in Heinz’s case, the main selling point is convenience.
 
Elsewhere, the green aspect has been pushed more convincingly. Where glass jars have previously been the industry standard in the coffee market, flexible packaging ‘eco-refill’ packs have become much more popular over the last few months. While corporate social responsibility programs are certainly a factor in this, coffee companies are also embracing flexible packaging because it allows them to offer their products at a significantly lower price.
 
An eco-friendly offering is particularly important to brands like Good Day Organics. An eco-conscious company in every other respect, they enlisted Elanders to make sure their packaging lived up to that ethos as well. With a reputation as the Green Manufacturer of the North East in 2013, Elanders has plenty of experience printing using flexible packaging and was able to help Good Day Organics to commit to using 100% recyclable packaging boxes.
 
Low-density polythene (LDPE) pouches have been widely adopted by sports drinks manufacturers like Lucozade Sport because the containers are flexible and cheap to produce. They’re also shatterproof, which is a huge benefit to manufacturers as it effectively cuts any breakages during transit down to zero. Unfortunately, they can still be damaged during unpacking if a shop assistant gets careless with a knife.
 
Industry experts say that flexible plastics that offer a barrier against moisture and aroma will continue to be a huge selling point with brands because, even if kept in poor storage by retailers, the taste and smell of products are uncompromised. Developments in antimicrobial packaging also go a long way towards improving food safety and extending shelf life.
 
Previously, there have been issues with PSA (pressure sensitive adhesives) losing their tack at low temperatures and deforming at high temperatures. But, with different types of PSA being used, the range of materials suitable for flexible packaging is expanding – films, papers, foil, fabrics and foam are all being used in 2015.
 
So what’s next for flexible packaging? A push to improve the recyclability of flexible packing materials is very likely. Currently, coffee packets are constructed using a plastic outer wrap around a foil inner. Although hot stamping on foil doesn’t affect the recyclability of foil, it can’t always be processed by recycling plants. As for the plastic wrap, over half a million tons of flexible plastic packaging ends up in landfill every year. The prohibitive cost of recycling plastic is partly to blame for this but, as the cost of plastic rises, taking a new approach may be necessary.
 
We’ve begun to see early iterations of pressure sensitive packaging that can ‘heal’ itself when torn or cut being developed at Stanford University. This is exciting not only because it could be used to substitute vacuum packaging, but also because it has the potential to be used in the development of ‘next gen’ prosthetic limbs and regenerative electronic devices. It could be that self-healing packaging, coupled with an industrial cleaning process of some kind, will make re-using materials easier and more cost effective than discarding it in landfill sites.
 
Flexible packaging may have advantages over its inflexible alternatives, but it’s not the ‘green’ option that many people seem to think it is. Time, effort and money is being spent on researching ways to improve the recyclability of plastic, but its days may be numbered anyway; the production of plastic requires crude oil and, when oil hits a certain price, that cost will eventually become too prohibitive. We just have to hope that a cheap, renewable alternative will be found before that day comes.
 
Elanders UK is part of Elanders Group, which is a company with operations in 15 countries on four continents. Elanders Group offers its customers global solutions for print & packaging, supply chain management and e-commerce.