Backed by long-term experience, CPS Company summarizes the main factors to be taken into consideration when evaluating the hypothesis of an ecological transition, from plastic to paper packaging for tissue products.
Before embarking on an ecological transition, which involves switching from plastic to paper as a packaging material for tissue products (from handkerchiefs to napkins to toilet paper), some key factors need to be considered.
CPS Company has many years of experience in the packaging of tissue products and is perfectly aware of the pros and cons of paper and plastic as packaging materials. Starting from this know-how, CPS Company summarizes which aspects it is important to consider:
- Cost of packaging material
To choose between paper and plastic, the price variable affects a lot. Paper costs about 2% more than plastic polymers and, for a sector where margins are created above all on large sales volumes, this is a far from negligible difference.
- Welding and maintenance costs
Managing the welds for paper packaging is not easy. The use of metal staples or “glue lines” (which logically should be ecological) is in fact impractical on the operational level, both for the greater maintenance required but also for the necessary interventions on the process steps.
- Level of protection
Paper is not able to offer a level of protection comparable to that of plastic: the use of a second level of protection in polymeric film is always recommended, both to facilitate the “unpacking” and positioning of the products on the shelf, and to protect them from humidity, dust and other external agents.
Enrico Rubbini, commercial director of CPS Company comments: “Since the secondary plastic packaging is almost always required by the distribution, in fact there is no inconsistency in using LDPE for the secondary paper packs: there is a reduction in plastic aniway “.
- Recycling
The final consumer disposes of paper more easily, less bulky and easier to manage; on the contrary, large-scale distribution is perfectly at ease in differentiating secondary polymeric packaging.
From this brief analysis it emerges that there are still significant criticalities in relation to the ecological transition.
The challenge of the next few years will be, for all operators in the supply chain, to identify solutions that are economically and environmentally sustainable.