The campaign against plastic packaging began five years ago, and the same concerns still persist today. However, if new technologies are adopted and all objectives are met, people might still accept plastic bottles.
Most food technologists understand that beer is made from fermented grains, which are highly sensitive to oxygen, microbial contamination, COâ‚‚ loss, moisture loss, light exposure, and other environmental factors. For beer, these environmental impacts can be extremely damaging. Heat treatment and proper packaging at the bottling station are essential to eliminate these risks. Traditional glass bottles are heat-resistant, able to withstand pasteurization for a period, can be tinted to block light, prevent gas and flavor exchange, offer a secure seal, and have high neck pressure. Plus, they are inexpensive, which has contributed to their long-standing use in beer packaging.
On the other hand, advocates of plastic packaging argue that it offers advantages such as lighter weight, reduced breakage, and a smaller footprint during transportation. With modern technology, plastic bottles could potentially provide the necessary oxygen barrier. If such a bottle becomes available, the main obstacle to replacing glass with plastic would be overcome.
However, brewers have not yet found plastic bottles that meet all these requirements. They claim that the plastic bottles they currently use have some gas barrier properties and can hold beer effectively. Although this topic has been widely discussed, recent packaging incidents over the past two years have led to some disagreements. Due to the complexity of the issue, many are still waiting to see if it’s possible to implement plastic bottle production technology successfully.
Although materials like polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) and liquid crystal polymer (LCP) can meet these requirements and show promising potential, cost remains a challenge. These high-performance gas-barrier plastics can be used to make single-layer bottles, but their high price makes them currently unviable. Therefore, those promoting plastic bottles are now focusing on blending these expensive polymers with more affordable ones like polyethylene terephthalate (PET).
From a general perspective, most packaging companies use multi-layer composite materials. Airtightness is the top priority, which requires these materials to be classified based on co-injection molding, overmolding, or coating techniques. If a base polymer is used instead of polyester, injection molding can be avoided. However, polyester is still the ideal choice, as it must go through injection molding, stretching, blowing, and forming—meaning that raw materials must be melted before being blown into shape and then injected into molds.
[Note] China Packaging Information Network is the official website of China Packaging News and China Packaging Industry Magazine.
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