Sustainable packaging will grow to 32% of the total global packaging market by 2014, up from just 21% in 2009, according to Sustainable Packaging, new study from Pike Research.
Plastic?based packaging, which represents 35% of all materials used, will be the fastest?growing sector of the sustainable packaging market over the next five years. Metal?based packaging, one of the easiest materials to recycle, will continue to be the sector with the highest percentage of sustainability – by 2014, more than 63% of metal?based packaging will be environmentally friendly.
"The $429 billion global packaging industry is huge but extremely fragmented, with no clear market leaders," says managing director Clint Wheelock. "As such, the move toward sustainable packaging represents a broad?based effort by manufacturers, retailers, industry groups, and governments to promote the design of minimal packaging that can be easily reclaimed. A tremendous amount of innovation is going into reducing energy requirements to manufacture packaging and using more recyclable and compostable materials, but there is still a long way to go."
Pike Research estimates that the worldwide market for packaging is currently valued at $429 billion. We forecast the market to surpass $500 billion in sales within five years, an annual growth rate exceeding the total global increase in GDP. Paper and paper-based packaging are the largest sectors with more than 40% of the global packaging market.
