Plastic Packaging Flexes Its Resource Efficiency Plastic packaging is lightweight, cost-efficient and does a great job protecting and preserving food. And that's just the beginning of the story. Material Efficiency It can take less lightweight plastic to package many products than alternatives. Substituting a variety of plastics packaging** with non-plastics alternatives would increase the amount of packaging generated annually in the U.S. by 55 million tons. Other packaging 130% more GHGs 80% more energy + Plastics used in packaging help prevent food waste, deliver food safely, and meet FDA safety standards. By preventing product waste, packaging also prevents the waste of all the resources * invested in growing and producing products. Packaging can dramatically extend food shelf life, helping to save consumers money and prevent spoilage. *water, energy, materials **The study assessed the energy requirements and greenhouse gas emissions of six general categories of plastic packaging produced and sold in the United States and Canada. These include caps and closures, beverage containers, other rigid containers, carrier bags, stretch/shrink wrap, and other flexible packaging. Reducing what we use in the first place conserves natural resources and means there is less overall material produced, per application. In fact, replacing all plastic packaging with alternatives would use more energy and create more greenhouse gases.