06/04/2021 Sustainability

Trends in the use of barrier plastic packaging

In sectors such as industrial or agrochemical, barrier plastic packaging is a must for products to be distributed safely, without posing any health risk and keeping the product intact until its use.

Choosing the most suitable packaging for a product is not only  a matter of thinking about its use, transport and appearance. The characteristics that a container must have are conditioned by those of the product it contains and its way of reacting when coming into contact with it.

This factor is even more important when we talk about chemicals and industrial products, among others, that are more aggressive and that can further deteriorate packaging. It is in these cases where barrier plastic packaging  can become the protagonist, since these  are  containers with all the barrier properties necessary to contain the product in perfect condition, retain all its characteristics and, most difficultly,  do not deteriorate during its storage, transport and distribution. But what exactly does barrier packaging have that makes it one of the most adequate solutions to pack aggressive products?

What is barrier plastic packaging?

Barrier plastic containers, manufactured by co-extrusion, consist of several layers of plastic materials, which provide sufficient strength to contain aggressive products that would deteriorate and deform any other type of packaging.

This is why barrier plastic packaging is one    of  the great solutions to preserve and transport chemical products in the safest way. The chemical formulations emit gases that can bloat or collapse a plastic container, so that, not any type of plastic packaging would be adequate in these cases.

Barrier plastic containers made by blown coextrusion combine materials with different properties to achieve protection that would be unworkable with other mono-layer containers.

Until now, multilayer coextrusion had been one of the worldwide used technology to manufacture barrier packaging, from now, in  Alcion  Packaging  Solutions we  have already incorporated into our manufacturing process a new technology, plasma fluorination,  being the most sustainable option that provides  barrier properties  to  100% recyclable HDPE packaging.

cta barrier packaging

Key features of barrier packaging

Barrier plastic packaging is the perfect choice to pack chemicals and industrial products because of their ability to protect from light, moisture, oxygen and temperature changes, the main physical factors that can affect both the product and the packaging itself and alter its properties and characteristics.

In addition to preventing packaging from deteriorating by shock or from possible reactions to external agents, barrier plastic containers must  also protect them from oxidation, degradation of their components and, ultimately, from any factors that can chemically alter them  as well as from the internal reactions  of the formulation itself.

Thanks to barrier plastic packaging, it is possible to prolong chemicals shelf life, that is, keeping all their characteristics intact for as long as possible until the expiration of the product indicated by the formulator or packer. This shelf life depends to a large extent on factors such as container permeation, as the presence of oxygen, water vapour or carbon dioxide can alter the composition of products and impair them.

Barrier plastic packaging may be different, and the products for which they are used, too. Depending on the characteristics of each product, packaging may be needed  to  act as a barrier against some factors or others.

Trends in the use of barrier packaging

One of the main trends in barrier packaging research and innovation is to find solutions to make these packaging using the fewest different materials, resulting in a relatively homogeneous packaging that allows easier recycling and easier and less expensive production.

To achieve this, research focuses on the development of new raw materials with barrier properties that can be recycled, new technologies to improve the technical characteristics of packaging and the refinement of existing barrier packaging by trying to follow a more sustainable line with recyclable or biodegradable materials.

What does seem clear is that sustainability is the main tendency to follow for all companies that use and need barrier plastic packaging in their activity, and is that barrier packaging is no longer expected only protection and resistance, but also that they are recyclable or biodegradable and that favor the circular economy both throughout its life process.

Barrier plastic packaging is considered one of the best options for sectors such as industrial, chemical, cosmetic,  dermocosmetic, agrochemical, etc., and at Alcion  Packaging  Solutions  we have the best technologies to produce barrier packaging following the latest   trends. We know that sustainability is one of the great concerns of any company today, and producing  100% recyclable barrier packaging and through a totally  environmentally friendly process  is  already a reality for us thanks to plasma fluorination.

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