Performance plastics live up to their name and provide excellent performance, and are also a more environmentally conscious choice to other packaging materials. Much of the energy and environmental savings comes from the fact that they are so lightweight.
What makes performance plastics so great?
- They can withstand chemicals and corrosion, or are fully biodegradable.
- They weigh less than other packaging, saving transportation and fuel costs.
- Their require less lubrication because of their low coefficient of friction.
- They’re durable and have a long lifespan and repairability so you minimize equipment downtime during part replacement.
Performance Plastics also save:
- Gas: the average car saves 650 gallons of gas over it’s lifespan when it uses performance plastic parts
- Energy: foam polystyrene plastic containers require 30% less energy to produce than paperboard ones
- Power: recycling 1 milk jug can keep a 100 watt bulb burning of 11 hours.
- Waste: without performance plastics, packaging waste would increase by 160%
When you compare plastics to other materials the benefits are obvious:
- To carry 100 oz of soda…you need 2 lbs of plastic compared to 27 pounds steel, 8 pounds glass, or 3 lbs aluminum
- To package one gallon of milk…you need 0.25 lbs of plastic compared to 4.3 lbs of glass
- To transport bags…you can fit 2.8 million bags fit in 1 truck, compared to only 500,000 paper bags
Using performance plastics in packaging can save enough energy to power a city of 1 million homes for 3.5 years. For more information about the environmental benefits of these plastics check out the Environmental Fast Facts sheet.
