Plastic is a highly efficient material for use in packaging. It’s strong, durable, resistant, as well as extremely lightweight, and cheap to produce. Plastic is so light that it is the most Energy-Efficient material to use in packaging. More can be shipped using less fuel.

For this reason, plastic has long overtaken other more traditional packaging materials, such as glass, wood, fabric, paper, and metal. For example, it takes just two pounds of plastic to transport ten gallons of liquid compared with either 40 pounds of glass or four pounds of metal (aluminum) to do the same job.