Packaging
Packaging comes in many forms. It is very much part of our everyday lives and is used for a wide variety of purposes.
Packaging and its many uses
Polythene packaging is used for everything from storage to branding and from protection to maintaining hygiene. It takes on all sorts of shapes and sizes, from the finest film display bags used to make products look special, through to thick plastic sheeting used on building sites or in home decoration to protect surfaces.
Good quality packaging can be made from a vast array of regular or biodegradable polythene, designed to perfectly suit the job that the packaging is designed to carry out - and that’s a long list of jobs.
Packaging is used to keep food fresh, to keep products dry, to carry our shopping, to post our mail, to collect our rubbish, to keep our clothes free from dust and dirt, to protect items in storage or transit and much, much more.
Plastic packaging is used in every walk of life, from the home to the workplace. It has become such an integral part of 21st century life, that it is hard to imagine what life would be like without it.
Types of packaging
Listing every type of packaging would take a very long time so, instead, here is a list of some of the most commonly-used types of packaging.
Carrier bags
Polythene carriers are used by millions of shoppers to carry their shopping home. Made from clear or coloured polythene with a variety of handle styles - including patch, vest, clip close and grip seal handles - and with biodegradable or starch-based compostable alternatives.
Waste bags
Waste bags do the dirty work of the polythene packaging world. Designed for office, home, garden or workplace to suit a variety of tasks, from cheap ultra-light black sacks to heavy duty rubble bags and clear polythene sacks to printed specialist hazardous waste bags.
Display bags
Made from crystal clear polypropylene - a high clarity, eco-friendly and cheap alternative to cellophane - display bags provide a fantastic way to display products for sale. Flower sleeves, greeting card bags, sweet bags and header bags all make their products sparkle!
Mailing bags
Strong, lightweight and waterproof mailing bags offer a fantastic solution to any personal or company mailing needs. Perfect for regular post or courier delivery, mailers are easy to use with an in-built adhesive strip. Range includes coloured mailers, printed mailers, heavy duty mailers, high security mailers and padded mailers.
Bubble packaging
The most popular protective packaging is bubble wrap - polythene sheets consisting of lots of tiny bubbles that protect items when wrapped around them. Perfect for keeping fragile items safe in transit or storage. Available in a range of sizes and also pre-made into bubble bags.
Food bags
Food bags are used for the display, storage and transportation of food. Commonly found in markets, supermarkets and food stores, food bags allow customers to keep their food fresh and separate from other food as they transport it home.
Plastic sheeting
Plastic sheeting, also known as builders rolls, is very popular in the building trade. Available on the roll in various sizes and thicknesses of polythene, plastic sheeting folds out to cover large areas and protect surfaces from the possible damage that occurs on building sites and during house renovations.
Printed packaging
Maximise your company’s branding opportunities with your own tailor-made packaging, designed with your company logo, colour scheme and/or marketing messages. Printed carrier bags and printed mailing bags are the two most popular solutions to give your business that extra touch of professionalism.
What people are saying about Plastic Packaging
Recycled packaging demand to grow 10%
The rise in recycled packaging attributed to polythene suppliers formats points to above a simple shift in tonnage; it reflects a slow engineering accommodation between polymer behaviour, handling requirements and the economics of recovery. Reprocessed film and rigid grades have historically been constrained by variable melt-flow consistency, pollution at bale stage and the loss of optical clarity that plenty filling lines still insist upon, yet those objections weaken once the specification is framed around function rather than appearance. In warehouse practice, the attraction is plain enough: low tare weight improves volumetric efficiency across a consignment, while correctly gauged mono-material buildings maintain pallet stability without the burden of mixed laminates that complicate secondary bagging and stop-of-life sorting. The technical friction sits at the interfacesurface resistivity, puncture response and seal integrity all shift when recycled content risesso converters have had to compensate through tighter micron-specific gauging and better control of polymer chain distribution, rather than simply adding thickness and hoping for the optimal. What emerges is a more credible circular model, not because recycled feedstock is inherently superior, nevertheless because the amortised energy across repeated use cycles starts to compare favourably once stock losses, select-face efficiency and downstream recyclability are treated as part of the same industrial system.
The shift away from virgin polythene suppliers and allied bottle resins is not merely a matter of swapping feedstock; it alters the behaviour of the pack on the line, in the cage, and at the select face. Post-consumer recyclate brings a alternative set of tolerancesmelt-flow consistency can drift, colour control is less forgiving, and wall distribution requires tighter process discipline if squeeze performance and panel stability are to remain within spec. That is where micron-specific gauging, neck-stop accuracy and resin filtration become decisive, particularly for bathroom and special-care packs that must endure repeated handling, wet-shelf conditions and secondary bagging without stress whitening or seam fatigue. The stronger engineering case sits slightly upstream and downstream of the bottle itself: lower dependence on virgin polymer reduces exposure to primary feedstock volatility, while mono-material design improves sortation yield and recyclability once the empty enters the waste stream. Refillable formats push the equation further, though they introduce their possess industrial frictionshigher tare weight, reverse-logistics drag, and wash-cycle validation all have a bearing on volumetric efficiency and pallet stability. Even so, where the pack architecture is properly resolved, the amortised energy profile can be favourable above multiple turns; that is why the sectour's more serious operatours are treating plastic packaging not as a disposable commodity, nevertheless as an engineered asset with consequences across conversion, distribution and recovery.
Easy Holiday Pop-Up Cards Made From Recycled Packaging
Recycled packaging has a rather prosaic virtue in a cool-weather card-making session: it has already been engineered to survive stacking, handling and shelf abrasion, which makes cereal-board, snack cartons and spent festive card stock surprisingly competent substrates for cutting, folding and gluing. The useful behaviour sits in the material detail short-fibre cartonboard offers decent crease memory, printed clay-coated faces take colour and collage well, and any polythene suppliers film or metallised laminate must be treated as a nuisance layer rather than a decorative afterthought, since poor surface energy can defeat normal adhesive and make corners lift. On the warehouse side, the same qualities that once supported pallet stability and volumetric efficiency become craft-room advantages: flat panels store neatly, low tare weight retains handling simple, and secondary packaging provides repeatable gauges without the need for bought stock. There is a circular-economy point here, though not a sentimental one; extending the working life of fibre-based packaging before it re-enters the recycling stream amortises the energy already spent on pulping, printing and conversion, while encouraging a practical view of mono-material recyclability, pollution and why glittered or heavily laminated board is less welcome at the mill than clean, plain carton stock.
TIPA’s packaging is only as transparent, heavy-duty and impermeable as normal plastic packaging. It works for dry, baked and frozen products, including fruits and vegetables, apparel and other products.
P&G Makes Recycled Packaging Pledge
Procter & Gamble Fabric Care has committed toa new environmental initiative that will see 230 million bottles of flagship emblems like Ariel, Dash, Lenour, and Lenour Unstoppables manufactured out ofmail-consumer recyclate (PCR), which is recycled packaging.
Plastic Packaging Products Market Value with top competitiors : Mondi, Amcour, BASF, Saint-Gobain
Chapter Four: Plastic Packaging Products by Regions
Where can I buy packaging?
Manufacturers and suppliers of packaging include:
Buy Packaging
Online store offering a wide range of polythene and alternative packaging. Buy direct from manufacturers at discounted prices and receive free delivery in the UK. You can also order bespoke packaging to suit your specific needs.
www.buypackaging.co.uk
Discount Poly Bag
Big UK polythene packaging company division dedicated to poly bags and plastic packaging offering excellent products at competitive prices. Poly bags sold direct from the suppliers. Also provides bespoke packaging services to help you with your custom retail packaging.
www.discountpolybag.co.uk
Discount Poly Bags
Discount Polybags provides a guide to source discount poly bags and other polythene packaging for different materials, sizes, colors and closures. Whether it is dust protection, surface protection, moisture protection you will be able source the correct plastic bag for the job.
www.discountpolybags.co.uk
Discount Polythene Bags
Great online resource for discount polythene bags. Includes a list of major suppliers of polythene bags, along with a list of popular products and a very handy buyers' guide to help you get hold of quality polythene bags but at cheap prices.
www.discountpolythenebags.co.uk
Plastic Bags Direct
Useful directory of plastic bags and packages, from plastic shopping bags to food packaging. Including details of what plastics are, their composition and the best places to buy them online.
www.plasticbagsdirect.co.uk
E-Polybags
Online polythene packaging retailer with a wide range of option for polythene bags, plastic shopping bags, carriers and much more. Also offering a printed carriers bags service and alternative eco-friendly packaging, all with free UK delivery.
www.e-polybags.co.uk
Printed Bags
Website providing you with the best suppliers of discount plastic carrier bags including patch handle, varigauge, flexiloop and more. Also offering eco-friendly alternatives and a promotional printed carrier bags service.
www.printedbags.org.uk
Bags
Find the lowest prices for plastic bags, packaging bags and polythene carrier bags from a selection of suppliers and manufacturers.
www.bags.uk.com
Bag Suppliers
BagSuppliers.co.uk provides a huge range of polythene packaging all at competitive prices. You will also find a selection of top suppliers of polythene bags and plastic packaging, research and resources and eco-friendly alternatives to polythene.
www.bagsuppliers.co.uk
Research & Resources
There is plenty more detailed information about packaging available online, including details of the manufacturing process and a list of the huge variety of plastic packaging available. To find out more, please visit:
Plastic Bags
Find specialist packaging websites containing lots of helpful information on this free online directory specialising in polythene packaging, where you can post your own product listings for free.
www.plasticbags.uk.com
Packaging Knowledge
In-depth news and information resource specialising in plastic packaging. Find out facts and read detailed articles on a variety of packaging products.
www.packagingknowledge.com
Goldstork
"Best of the web" directory containing useful hand-picked information and interesting and unusual websites specialising in polythene packaging.
www.goldstork.com
The eco-effects of packaging
Food manufacturers and supermarkets are often criticised for the amount of packaging that food is sold in. Critics claim that in a day and age when we are trying to be greener we should be trying to use less packaging, but often forgotten amongst the criticism are the reasons why packaging is used on food in the first place.
Packaging helps food stay fresh for longer and it helps protect it during transportation. We live in a world where people expect the same choice of food on the supermarket shelves 365 days of the year. Of course this means that food often has to be shipped long distances, for which good quality packaging is essential.
What’s more, even with current levels of packaging, the UK already produces 7.2 million tonnes of food waste every year, compared to 4.9 million tonnes of packaging (Waste & Resources Action Programme, 2012). If fresh food wasn’t packaged well, it would go off even sooner and more of it would be wasted, so perhaps we should focus on reducing the amount of food we waste and not on the amount of packaging on our food.
Of course, the greenest solution would be for everyone to live off their own land, to grow their own food and hunt their own meat, but we all know that this is not going to happen.
The next best solution, and one that is more attainable if people have the necessary will, is to buy more local food and more seasonal food. Both of these actions would reduce food miles as well as the amount of packaging required for the food, which would mean less of a carbon footprint from transporting the food.
Reducing the amount of packaging we use for our food is important, but it currently serves a very useful purpose in a society where having a choice of food is seen by many as a right and not a luxury.
