Guide to Packaging Material Flows and Terminology

A Guide to Packaging Material Flows and Terminology provides a common framework for communication along the supply chain, including a glossary of all major packaging materials with the various terms and synonyms that are applied to the materials during the life cycle phases of production, use, collection, and reprocessing. The Guide also presents graphic representations of the current life cycle of each material to demonstrate the flow of the packaging material from resource extraction to its eventual fate at end-of-life, highlighting the existing gaps standing in the way of an ideal closed-loop system.

The packaging materials profiled in the 40-page report are aluminum, glass, steel, high-density polyethylene, low-density and linear low-density polyethylene, polyethylene terephthalate, polypropylene, and paper.

Released June 2009