17 Aug Fake news about plastic packaging and labels

What do you know about plastic packaging and labels?

There can be no doubt that plastics are part of our lives, since they are present in our daily lives in multiple forms, colors and areas, mainly in the packaging and labels of any type of product.

Not only that, but plastics are also present in many news items that appear in the media. As a consequence, plastics have a bad reputation when it comes to sustainability issues. But how much truth is there in this news? Are plastics really the enemy of sustainability?

Read on and discover the other side of plastic packaging and labels.

Advantages of plastic packaging and labels

In a hyperconnected world with unlimited access to information, fake news on news portals, the written press, radio, television and social networks are the order of the day and, far from being well informed, we live in a society where misinformation reigns.

One of the main victims of fake news is plastics, which are treated as one of the main enemies of sustainability.

However, plastics offer great advantages that promote the improvement of the environment and the quality of life of society. Plastics are materials that are:

• Resistant
• Safe
• Versatile
• Light
• Impermeable
• Recyclable

According to EsPlásticos, no material combines these characteristics and if it were possible to substitute plastics with another material this would require four times more  raw material, more than twice the energy and three times as many emissions would be generated.

Plastic packaging and labels and sustainability

Plastics can be, more than an enemy, an ally in the fight against climate change.

• Climate change. One of the main advantages of plastics is that it is a light material which is less voluminous than its alternatives; this permits great savings of resources, raw material and emissions. According to the platform EsPlásticos, were all the plastic packaging in the world to be replaced, it would be necessary to produce twice the energy and triple the emissions.

In the case of transport, plastic containers reduce the weight of the load, wherefore the vehicles save on fuel.

In the case of the food sector, plastic containers help to maintain the product’s properties, significantly reducing food waste and, therefore, emissions from the agri-food industry.

• Circular economy. Plastic waste is also a very valuable resource. According to data from EsPlásticos, in Spain each year more than one million tons of plastics are recycled, which means more than 800,000 tons of recycled plastic containers annually. In addition, the plastic products that are consumed increasingly have a higher percentage of recycled material.

• Marine litter. Millions of plastics end up in our seas and oceans every year. This is a fact and of course, it is unacceptable. However, the real problem is not the material, but poorly managed waste.

In order to stop plastics from ending up in the sea, the solution is not to replace plastics with another material that floats less, but to better manage the waste of the resources we use.

If we merely focus on substituting one material with another, we are taking for granted that we will continue to throw garbage into the sea, but instead of plastic waste, it would be another material that will surely produce emissions and take the same or longer to degrade.

• Health and safety. According to EsPlásticos, plastics are the materials that are subject to the most security controls worldwide. They comply with the strictest national, European and international regulations and legislation.

For this reason, it is the material par excellence in the food industry since it guarantees safety and reduces food waste.

The same happens in the health sector, where plastics are present both in single-use materials and in life-saving systems.

• Society and economy. Finally, plastics also make a contribution to society. Currently, according to data from EsPlásticos, the plastics sector generates more than 93,000 direct quality jobs in Spain in more than 3,000 companies, most of them SMEs

The plastics industry has an annual turnover of more than 30,000 million euros, contributing more than 1,500 million euros a year in taxes.

What we do at Rieusset

At Rieusset we believe that the best way to stop climate change is to use the best label and packaging option for each product, taking into account its life cycle, needs and characteristics, which includes also using plastics.

Sustainability has always been one of Rieusset’s fundamental pillars. For this reason, in the field of label printing and flexible packaging we focus on the materials used and their recyclability, opting for recyclable materials or materials with recycled content. We work with plastics that have recycled content and, in the case of multilayer products, we work with mono-materials.

Find out more about our commitment to sustainability.