Sustainable Packaging from Waste Material: A Review …
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and energy; Effectively recovered and used in biological and/ or industrial closedloop cycles”. Valdes et al. (2014) reported that packaging waste accounted for 29.5%
of the total municipal solid waste (MSW) in 2009 in the USA and 25% of the total
MSW in Europe in 2006. Various laws have been implemented by governments
globally to limit the use of plastics and to reduce the amount of packaging waste
that end up In the landfill. In Europe, the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive (94/62/EC amended by2004/12/EC) is used to reduce packaging waste and to
encourage the recovery and recycling of the materials (Guzman et al. 2011).
Packaging waste is currently disposed by landfilling, recycling, incinerating and
composting; therefore, there is still much work has to be done to significantly reduce
packaging waste present in MSW. The contaminations and their impacts associated
with synthetic food packaging and their related concerns causes a negative environmental impact of plastic packaging materials derived from petroleum. This has significantly routed the interests of academia and industry to natural and biodegradable
materials (Fama et al. 2010; Bonilla et al. 2013; Chang-Bravo and López-Córdoba
2014; Gonzalez et al. 2016). Apart from direct food wastes, other sectors such as
foods, beverages and consumer goods packaging generate more non-eco-friendly
plastic wastes and this has resulted into huge impact on the environment. With insufficient prioritization source reduction, recyclability, compostability, recycled content
and recycling policies in packaging industry (MacKerron and Hoover 2015), wastes
are likely to increase in the coming years. It is estimated that less than 14% of plastic
packaging materials are recyclable (MacKerron and Hoover 2015), and as plastic
commands the greatest proportion of food packaging industry, the need to design
biobased material is a priority. Furthermore, consumers have increased awareness
on the consequences of plastic consumption and have diverted their attention towards
sustainability, which can generally be achieved at different levels.
4 Non Plastic Environmental Friendly Packaging Material
Some of the materials on current demand, technological effectiveness, and having a
potential for reducing future problems are Glass, paper and textile materials, which
already have been used as packaging materials in different ways due to their abundance. Composites are applied to all materials in order to enhance their properties and
to reduce their negative points. The development of technology (Tutus et al. 2016;
Costa et al. 2019) population growth and urbanization has led packaging technologies
into an alternative—plastics.
• Glass is widely used as a packaging material due to the chemical inactivity of silica
and also due to its long term reusability, barrier properties, transparency, strength,
and ability to mold easily. However, the breakability quality of glass packaging
under shocks, heaviness and its vulnerability under temperature shocks are the
negative aspects of using glass for packaging (ASTM 2000, 2004)
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and energy; Effectively recovered and used in biological and/ or industrial closedloop cycles”. Valdes et al. (2014) reported that packaging waste accounted for 29.5%
of the total municipal solid waste (MSW) in 2009 in the USA and 25% of the total
MSW in Europe in 2006. Various laws have been implemented by governments
globally to limit the use of plastics and to reduce the amount of packaging waste
that end up In the landfill. In Europe, the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive (94/62/EC amended by2004/12/EC) is used to reduce packaging waste and to
encourage the recovery and recycling of the materials (Guzman et al. 2011).
Packaging waste is currently disposed by landfilling, recycling, incinerating and
composting; therefore, there is still much work has to be done to significantly reduce
packaging waste present in MSW. The contaminations and their impacts associated
with synthetic food packaging and their related concerns causes a negative environmental impact of plastic packaging materials derived from petroleum. This has significantly routed the interests of academia and industry to natural and biodegradable
materials (Fama et al. 2010; Bonilla et al. 2013; Chang-Bravo and López-Córdoba
2014; Gonzalez et al. 2016). Apart from direct food wastes, other sectors such as
foods, beverages and consumer goods packaging generate more non-eco-friendly
plastic wastes and this has resulted into huge impact on the environment. With insufficient prioritization source reduction, recyclability, compostability, recycled content
and recycling policies in packaging industry (MacKerron and Hoover 2015), wastes
are likely to increase in the coming years. It is estimated that less than 14% of plastic
packaging materials are recyclable (MacKerron and Hoover 2015), and as plastic
commands the greatest proportion of food packaging industry, the need to design
biobased material is a priority. Furthermore, consumers have increased awareness
on the consequences of plastic consumption and have diverted their attention towards
sustainability, which can generally be achieved at different levels.
4 Non Plastic Environmental Friendly Packaging Material
Some of the materials on current demand, technological effectiveness, and having a
potential for reducing future problems are Glass, paper and textile materials, which
already have been used as packaging materials in different ways due to their abundance. Composites are applied to all materials in order to enhance their properties and
to reduce their negative points. The development of technology (Tutus et al. 2016;
Costa et al. 2019) population growth and urbanization has led packaging technologies
into an alternative—plastics.
• Glass is widely used as a packaging material due to the chemical inactivity of silica
and also due to its long term reusability, barrier properties, transparency, strength,
and ability to mold easily. However, the breakability quality of glass packaging
under shocks, heaviness and its vulnerability under temperature shocks are the
negative aspects of using glass for packaging (ASTM 2000, 2004)