The packaging market in Italy

More and more businesses and individuals, day after day, use packaging to increase their sales and the shipments that follow.
This is a constantly growing reality, since this sector is linked to many other activities in the manufacturing branch.
Not to mention all those companies that, thanks to this activity, manage to increase their production by using a system that protects their consumer goods.

Statistics on the packaging market in Italy

According to the Italian Packaging Institute, we have witnessed a major evolution in the packaging sector.
This grew by almost 3% on the domestic market and by about 1.3% for goods bound for abroad.

We’re talking about growth in the shipping sector that reaches more than 2% for durable goods and about 3% for those that, instead, must be consumed immediately.
These are certainly very important results since, towards the end of 2021, these trends were lower than what was recorded in recent months.

In the remaining months of 2022, the packaging sector kept up this trend, so much so that growth reached thresholds of 6% for imports.
A clearly higher result, on the other hand, concerns exports, whose increase is around 21.9%. It seems, however, that all these numbers could still rise, as the system has not yet undergone a reversal.

The volumes of the various products used for packaging

Every industry uses a certain type of packaging to best protect its products. Depending on need, different materials: it is precisely the type of resource used that determines the volume employed in this sector.

Paper recorded a volume of about 1,170 million tonnes, reaching almost 100% of all the packaging produced in Italy.
Even larger numbers concern the use of plastic which, today, is used for 855 million tonnes of products in Italy alone.
As for wood and ferrous materials the percentages drop, but are still very high, hovering around 40-60% of all packaging.
Also used are aluminium in about 60% of packages, and glass, present at 959 million tonnes.

Metal , on the other hand, reaches the threshold of 235 million tonnes.
The total of all this packaging therefore comes to a volume of 3,356 million tonnes.
Which materials are used in the packaging sector?

As mentioned earlier, the packaging of a product changes according to the resource it will have to protect.
It is precisely for this reason that there are different materials used in the packaging market in Italy.

Italian law has in fact established that every type of product must be transported with very precise instructions which, if breached, could lead to heavy penalties.
When it comes to food, you must use packaging materials that do not harm its organoleptic characteristics.
At the same time, you must adopt a solution that allows compliance with the various health regulations, avoiding exposure to insects, animals and bacteria.

In this case it is advisable to wrap food in paper made specifically for this purpose, or to use the vacuum technique.
They will then be placed in crates or boxes that do not affect the product’s perishability.
Paper and its countless variants are used in most packages precisely because it is a versatile material suited to all purposes.

Corrugated cardboard, for example, is among the most sought-after materials, as it protects the product well and can prevent breakage even with extremely fragile items.
Paper is therefore used to ship documents, but also products and objects of various kinds across the various industrial sectors.
As for the glass , on the other hand, its field of use mostly concerns drinks and all those objects that require a material able to withstand very high temperatures.
Glass also resists acids and is recommended where you don’t want gas to pass through. Glass packaging is therefore perfect for storing wines, drinks, fruit and vegetables, but also some medicines.
Plastic packaging is used in very many cases, since it is suitable both for transporting food and for products outside the food industry.
In some cases it can protect a given item from impacts and sudden movements, such as bubble wrap.
It is also extremely suitable for technical products, devices and machinery that could be damaged during the journey.
Wood , on the other hand, is chosen for transporting heavy goods both in the food and industrial fields. This choice is still very widespread today.