Packaging is one of the greatest extensions of your brand, and having the right packaging can make or break a product.
There are a range of packaging materials that can be used to package water. All have their own benefits and drawbacks; these will depend on what you need and the message you want to convey with your packaging.
This article from the Fillcon team will go over the things you should consider when choosing the right material to package water.
What Do You Need to Consider When You Are Choosing Your Packaging?
Water is needed in so many ways for a variety of different purposes. From day-to-day consumption to being used in manufacturing processes.
To pick the right materials for your packaging you need to establish the answers to several questions:
- Where in the manufacturing process are you going to be using the water?
- How will it be used?
- Will the water be consumed/used by consumers?
- Do you need to transport the water?
- What quantity do you need the water in?
- Do you want to reuse the packaging, or will you need it to be disposed of?
- What message do you want to convey to your consumers with your packaging?
All these questions may not all be relevant to your needs but they will help you ensure that you are choosing the right materials for your product packaging.
The three main materials that you would use to package water are: glass, plastic and aluminium.
Glass
Glass is a brilliant choice if you are wanting your packaging to be sustainable because no matter how many times you recycle it the quantity never diminishes. Glass is also a great option if you want to offer a premium feel for your products. Glass is often used in luxury packaging because of this feeling; think of premium perfume bottles and VOSS water.
However, there are some significant drawbacks to using glass. Because of its fragile nature it can break easily. You can reinforce the glass and make it thicker to increase strength, but this can cause it to be less cost affective to produce and also increase the weight of the packaging which has knock on effects for costs further down the supply chain. A 330ml drinks bottle made from glass can weigh between 190g – 250g, compared to the 18g plastic alternative. This increases the transportation costs by five times compared to its plastic alternatives.
Glass is a brilliant choice if you are wanting a sustainable premium quality packaging for your products. But you must take into account the additional costs associated with the production and ensure that the products are protected during transportation and storage.
Plastic
This is a brilliant resource for packaging liquids. It is durable, versatile, and can be moulded into limitless shapes including handles and spouts. As mentioned above, it’s also lightweight, so using plastic compared to glass can help reduce the transportation costs.
Plastics do have a bad reputation for pollution. As plastics degrade over time, small plastic molecules release toxins which can poison soil and infiltrate waterways and damage the ecosystem. This is mainly because it is not being disposed of correctly and handled poorly by the business and consumers.
However, if you partner with a reliable waste management company to deal with your plastic waste, you won’t have to worry about this and can consider plastic as a sustainable packaging choice.
Aluminium
Like glass, aluminium is the ultimate recyclable material. It is lightweight and infinitely recyclable compared to plastic which will degrade overtime and will require more new plastic added over time. Aluminium is also widely recycled compared to some plastics which are only recycled in certain locations. Aluminium is an incredibly strong material to build with, but you must take into consideration rigidity of the material. In some cases denting can occur, and it can be hard to reform compared to plastic alternatives.
Aluminium however does often require more energy to produce each package; on average a standard bottle can produce double the CO2 compared to its plastic alternatives. However, because the aluminium packages are designed to be reused repeatedly, their footprint is often spread over a wider usage timeframe.
Overall, there is no perfect material to package water; each has its own benefits that will be suited to the needs of different businesses.
The Different Options Available to You From Fillcon
To put it simply, we manufacture and fill bottles, tubes and sachets. We cover a range of sectors from personal care, cosmetics, automotive and more.
We offer eco-friendly bottle filling services, with volumes ranging from 2ml – 500ml. Within our bottle filling services, we include filling, labelling, coding, capping and even packing into retail cartons. Bottles are available in a range of recyclable materials, including glass, plastic and aluminium.
If you would like to discuss the services we offer and how we can help you and your business, get in touch with one of our team today.