Lightweighting cuts packaging costs

Packaging costs have fallen by thousands of tons over the years for businesses which cut their use of paper and plastic to lighten shipping loads.

Paper and plastic use have lowered enormously over the years, with the weight of plastic grocery bags down by nearly 80% from bags in 1976.

Weight decrease, or 'lightweighting', and materials innovation were the main reasons for a drop of around 5.47 thousand tons per billion dollars GDP in 2008, down from 5.87 in 2007, 6.9 in the previous two years, and 6.2 in 2004.

The 2010 State of Green Business Report from GreenBiz.com said use of aluminium remained steady despite the economy improving slightly, although aluminium cans weigh about 64% of what they did in 1972.

"Of all these trends, lightweighting has been the key driver to packaging reductions, gaining currency with manufacturers for the simple reason that it gains them currency: Using fewer materials directly lowers costs," the report states.

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