Packaging Facts
Packaging is a fact of life in modern society. Some praise it for its convenience and ability to protect products, and others condemn it as wasteful. Packaging is involved with virtually every piece of merchandise in the modern world. Packaging is subject to an ongoing process of evolution as materials evolve and public priorities change.
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Materials
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The primary materials used in packaging are paper and plastic. Paper packaging may range from tissue paper and thin card to durable corrugated cardboard. Plastic applications are just as varied, ranging from thin plastic wraps around food to hard plastic cases for consumer durables. Glass and metal are also used extensively in the world of packaging, notably for the billions of cans and bottles of beverages that are consumed every year.
Advertising
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Packaging is an ideal site for advertising, because it is physically connected to a product and is taken into the consumer's home. Marketers are very aware of this and use packaging to promote as well as to protect their product. Most packaging features images of the product inside it along with praise for its superior qualities. Food packaging often features the food presented in mouth-watering scenarios that entice consumers to buy. Packaging can serve as direct marketing that is related to advertising on television or in magazines. Consumers are alerted to the product through the media and then recognize it in the store through its packaging.
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Damage Prevention
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The genesis of packaging was in damage prevention, and this remains one of its primary purposes. Fragile foods such as eggs or baked goods come in protective cases made of plastic or stiff cardboard. Breakable consumer goods such as sensitive electronics are encased in boxes and protected by custom formed Styrofoam blocks that hold fragile parts in place and prevent them from damage. All of this packaging is necessary largely because of a global economy that ships many items for thousands of miles before they reach the consumer.
Recycling
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Concerns about the waste involved in packaging has led to extensive recycling programs in many parts of the world. Redirecting used packaging materials to a recycling plant rather than a landfill decreases the burden on the landfill as well as the amount of energy and materials that are required to make more packaging. The environmental effects of discarded packaging are becoming ever more evident, most dramatically in a "garbage patch" in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that is reputedly larger than Texas and composed almost entirely of plastic packaging.
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References
- Photo Credit pills in a package image by Radoslav Atanasov from Fotolia.com
