The scale of shipping around Black Friday is enormous, marking the beginning of an unprecedented surge in parcel deliveries ahead of Christmas. In the US alone, the industry handles around 2.3 billion shipments during the December holiday season[1]. And weight matters: If each of these packages weighed just 10 grams more – for example, due to heavier alternative materials such as paper or cardboard – trucks would have to transport an additional 23,000 tonnes of weight[2] in this short period. This is where plastics offer an effective combination of weight savings and protection.

Lightweight Packaging Supports Transportation 

A key factor for logistics: According to forecasts, the global volume of parcel shipments could rise to nearly 500 billion by 2028. Keeping freight weight to a minimum requires lightweight product packaging that also provides protection. Plastics fulfil both functions: Stretch films and void-fill films secure pallets and improve transport safety. Preventing damage from breakage reduces costs and improves the environmental footprint by avoiding returns.

“Plastic is lightweight, versatile and conserves resources. Blanket criticism often fails to do the material justice,” points out Dominic Fiel, Executive Director of the Plastic is Fantastic Association. For him, the material's properties make it indispensable for product safety and resilient supply chains. Alternative packaging materials quickly reach their limits in this respect: For example, achieving the same level of protection as an extremely thin sheet of plastic bubble wrap would require enormous amounts of crumpled paper. This makes packages heavier, bulkier and more expensive to ship. Philipp Lehner, CEO of packaging manufacturer Alpla, highlights the impact of reducing plastic weight: “Every tenth of a gram saved significantly reduces energy consumption when multiplied across large volumes.” To reduce the burden of transportation, Alpla is researching further weight reductions by continuously improving material efficiency.

Recycling Preserves the Value of Packaging

To highlight the benefits of a material that often works behind the scenes, PiFA focuses on science-based education and a consistent circular economy approach. The aim is to use plastic as a flexible, high-performance material throughout its entire life cycle. Dominic Fiel therefore calls for a shift in mindset, with assessments of plastics based on objective criteria.

Sandra Pechac, Managing Director of the platform Verpackung mit Zukunft (Packaging with a Future), also advocates a fact-based perspective on the subject. Speaking figuratively on behalf of packaging itself, she says: “Please don't judge me solely by the material I'm made of, but by what I can do.” For Sandra Pechac, this also means viewing used packaging not as waste but as a valuable raw material and returning it to the circular economy wherever possible. She emphasizes: “We want to recognize the value of resources, preserve that value and use them for as long as possible. This requires cooperation across the entire value chain.” Philipp Lehner, who advocates the widespread adoption of design for recycling in production, confirms that this also safeguards the industry's independence: “Recycling has long since become a matter of economic resilience.”

Reliable Recyclate Quality Makes Sustainability Profitable

This is also emphasized by Jan Sültemeyer, Global Sustainability Leader at Avient, a specialist provider of plastic formulations. The industry remains heavily dependent on fossil-based imports and needs to make greater use of raw materials available closer to home. However, for recycled materials to remain competitive amid retail price pressures, they must be reliable and affordable. “Sustainability will only be implemented if it is affordable,” emphasizes Jan Sültemeyer.

In the high-pressure environment of logistics centres, packaging containing recycled material must not be expensive, tear or show visual defects. Avient addresses this challenge through a dual technological strategy developed in its own recycling laboratory: A software solution uses digital predictions to precisely determine in advance which color can be achieved for packaging made from pre-colored recycled material. This saves brand manufacturers costly laboratory testing when making adjustments. At the same time, specialized molecular additives stabilize the material's structure. This makes the recyclate sufficiently impact-resistant and tear-resistant to withstand the extreme demands of parcel handling, protecting online retailers' tight margins against costly transport damage.

Packaging Remains the Foundation of Consumption

With the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) and the Empowering Consumers Directive (EmpCo), the EU aims to advance a genuine circular economy. For Alpla CEO Philipp Lehner, this transformation also sends an important signal to the next generation: Anyone who truly wants to take action for the climate can find a powerful lever for achieving real global impact in packaging optimization. Nevertheless, PiFA Executive Director Dominic Fiel warns of market distortions: “Although Europe's recycling targets for 2030 are drawing closer, the European circular economy is at risk of coming to a premature end.” Cheap imports are undermining recyclate prices, which is why policymakers must take countermeasures through tariffs. Only a stable domestic circular economy can keep the logistics behind Black Friday affordable.

[1] https://shipmatrix.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/SMx-on-parcel-

[2] Model calculation: 2,300,000,000 parcels × 10 grams = 23,000,000,000 grams = 23,000,000 kg = 23,000 tonnes of additional transport weight

Image Source: iStock.com/alexsl

Image Caption: Consumption and costs: The Plastic is Fantastic Association and leading industry representatives explain why discount-driven e-commerce would be more expensive without plastics.