Do plastics use less energy than alternative packaging?

Recently the Guardian published an article with claims that plastic packaging is more energy efficient and produced less greenhouse gases than any alternative packaging e.g. renewable and compostable packaging. Does that sound like an advert for the plastics industry? Well it was, and shame on the Guardian for publishing it without exposing the source. 

The article said the report was by an Austrian environmental consultancy. It was, but guess who paid for it? Plastics Europe which describes itself as the Association of Plastics Manufacturers. In which case you would expect it to say nice things about plastic – and it does.

Their introduction to the report states with refreshing honesty that ‘The intention of this…study was to …demonstrate that the use of plastics can in many cases actually help save resources.’ No bias there then!

Equally damming is this statement from the study: ‘The scope of the study…is so extensive that a large number of assumptions and extrapolations have had to be made.’ So based entirely on facts then?

Check out the article at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/dec/29/plastic-packaging-waste-solution?INTCMP=SRCH