Top Packaging Trend to Watch in 2017 – Flexible Pouches

Flexible pouches aren’t new – they have been used for products such as beef jerky and dog food for decades. However, design and material advancements have led to an evolution of the product in recent years, creating a packaging option with a variety of uses, that can be molded and printed to meet marketing needs. Flexible plastic pouches have a number of inherent advantages over other packaging methods, such as:

·         Durability: Plastic flexible pouches don’t crack when frozen, don’t break when dropped, and can be twisted, bent, and contorted – and will still be a viable container. These also help them to be more resistant to contamination, and the inclusion of UV-resistant factors can prevent deterioration by light exposure.

·         Reusability: With easy-to-seal tops that help maintain freshness, the pouches can be refilled and reused as needed. It is an added value to the customer, and reduces landfill waste at the same time.

·         Efficiency: Flexible plastic packaging requires limited resources to make the packaging. As highlighted in this article, a pound of peanuts requires ten times more material when contained in glass versus a flexible plastic pouch.

·         Environmental Responsibility: Flexible plastic pouches require less energy to create – and because of their flexibility and light weight structure, Fres-co estimates that flexible pouches create 50% less volume in landfills, while requiring 88% less fossil fuel to produce.

·         Easy and Cheap to Ship: One truckload of flexible packaging can hold enough packages to contain what you would need 26 truckloads of glass packaging – which is 25 less truckloads, and 25 less tanks of fuel, needed to ship. When full, more flexible pouches can be fit into a truck’s weight limit, again reducing the numbers of truckloads needed and again saving fuel.

Easier to ship, safer to use, environmentally- and budget-friendly, the flexible plastic pouch looks to be the responsible packaging choice into the future. Here at Stamar, we like to stay on the cutting edge of the latest packaging technology, and we are interested to see how flexible plastic pouches evolve over the next few years. Contact us to see what we can do for your packaging needs to see what trends we can work into your packaging solution!