We interact with packaging many times each day and there’s no doubt we often take it for granted and frequently under-appreciate it. Packaging plays a vital role in our lives – here are 10 packaging facts you may find surprising.

1. Packaging Protects

Ten times more energy goes into the production of the food and goods it contains than into the packaging itself (there’s that number 10 again!)

2. Packaging Preserves

In less developed countries without the sophisticated distribution and packaging systems that we have in the UK for example, as much as 50% of food never reaches consumers.

3. I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles

Wine bottles are 750ml in size, because it’s the average capacity of a glass-blower’s lungs.

4. Apple Boxes

Apple pays as much attention to its packaging as it does to its products and has a secret room dedicated to packaging at its headquarters in California, and employ a dedicated box opener!

5. Losing Your Bottle

The expiry date on a bottle of water is for the bottle rather than the water itself.

6. Power of Recycling

One recycled glass bottle saves enough energy to power a computer for 25 minutes.

7. How much of my bin is used packaging?

The average dustbin contents by weight is 23% paper and board (newsprint, magazines, mail, tissues), 25% Packaging (glass and plastic bottles, metal cans, plastics film, paper wrapping, boxes), 32% kitchen and garden waste and 20% ‘other’ (shoes, plant pots, drinking glasses, coat hangers, furnishings, DIY waste)

8. 50 Shades Of…

Each of us probably handles well over 50 different items of packaging every day. If it functions properly we don’t notice it and tend to take its positive attributes for granted.

9. Continual Improvement

The packaging industry continues to make packaging easier to use and more convenient for consumers, while providing better protection using less material and so generating less waste.

10. Packing Up The Household

If you were to drive one less mile a day – or to turn your thermostat down by two degrees – you’d save as much energy as is used to make the packaging for an average household’s whole year’s supply of packaged goods.