What are Some Alternatives to Plastic for Dairy Packaging?

With the increasing awareness of environmental protection, people are actively exploring alternatives packaging materials to replace plastics. Here are some common types:

Paper Materials

Traditional Paper Cartons: For example, Tetra Pak and SIG Combibloc, the outer layer is paperboard to provide a certain stiffness and facilitate printing. There will be barrier layers such as aluminum foil in the middle to block oxygen, water vapor, and light. The inner layer is polyethylene and other plastic films to seal. Now some companies are also developing and improving, trying to reduce the proportion of plastic film, and by optimizing the structural design and coating treatment of paper boxes, while ensuring packaging performance, reducing dependence on plastic. For example, some paper boxes use special moisture-proof coatings to replace the water vapor barrier function of some plastic films.

Paper Bottles: They are made by using specially treated high-strength cardboard through winding, bonding, and other processes to make a bottle-shaped structure, some will also be lined with edible and degradable coatings inside to hold dairy products.  Compared with traditional plastic bottles, paper bottles are more environmentally friendly and can reduce the generation of plastic waste to a certain extent. Compared with traditional plastic bottles, paper bottles are more environmentally friendly and can reduce the generation of plastic waste to a certain extent. Some dairy beverages and yogurt products have already started to try to use paper bottles for packaging, but at present, their cost control and large-scale production processes need to be further improved.

Glass Materials

Glass Bottles: They have stable chemical properties and almost no chemical reaction with dairy products. They can well maintain the original flavor and nutrients of dairy products, and have excellent barrier properties, effectively blocking oxygen, water vapor, light, etc. Although glass bottles are heavy and fragile, resulting in relatively high transportation costs, they are still widely used in the packaging of some high-end dairy products, special fresh milk, fermented milk, and other products. In addition, glass bottles are reusable, which conforms to the concept of environmental protection and can replace plastic packaging to a certain extent for dairy packaging scenarios with high-quality requirements.

Metal Materials

Tinplate Cans: Made mainly of tinplate, they have good sealing properties, high strength and excellent compression resistance. They can block the outside air, light and water vapor, thus providing good protection for dairy products. They can also withstand high-temperature sterilization treatment and are suitable for packaging condensed milk, milk powder and other dairy products. Compared with plastic packaging, tinplate cans are more durable, recyclable and environmentally friendly. They have great advantages in the packaging of dairy products that need to be stored for a long time or transported over long distances and can replace some plastic packaging.

Aluminum cans: Aluminum cans also have excellent barrier properties and good sealing properties, and are relatively light in weight, easy to carry and transport, and easy to process and shape. There is a certain application potential in some high-end liquid milk and dairy beverage packaging fields, which can reduce dependence on plastic packaging, but its relatively high cost is currently a factor that limits its large-scale promotion.

Biodegradable Materials Based on Biomass

Polylactic Acid (PLA): It is a degradable polymer material made from renewable biomass resources such as corn and cassava through a series of processes such as fermentation and polymerization. PLA has good transparency, processing performance, and certain mechanical strength. It can be used to make dairy packaging boxes, packaging bags, etc. It can gradually degrade into carbon dioxide and water in the natural environment, reducing the accumulation of plastic waste. Some organic dairy products and niche brands of dairy beverages have begun to try to use PLA packaging to replace traditional plastic packaging.

Plant Fiber Composite Materials: Plant fibers, such as bamboo fibers and hemp fibers, are used with natural adhesives to make packaging materials through specific processes. This material has the advantages of being biodegradable and renewable and can be made into shapes such as boxes and cups for dairy products. Although it is barrier properties and moisture-proof properties still need to be further improved, it has positive significance in the exploration of environmentally friendly packaging and can gradually replace some plastic packaging in specific dairy product packaging scenarios.