PACKAGING – packaging solutions
The rise of civilization and forming of the first organized human settlements saw a need for gathering, carrying and storing fruit and water. To satisfy this emerging need, a man used, for the first time, a primitive form of what we call packaging. Since there are no written documents on this, it is hard to say what early humans used as packaging. We can only assume they used wicker, straw, animal hide and other products of animal origin. It was probably much later that humans started using clay, terra cotta, glass and metal pots.
Periods of human history are categorized and named after materials that had the greatest impact on the development of human societies (e.g. stone age, copper age, bronze age…). The most important materials of the modern age are pottery, steel and plastic or polymer materials.
Polymer materials are widely used in the production of packaging, and today, more than half of food industry products are packaged in that type of packaging.
Packaging is an integral part of the goods/products from the stage of the production process, through transportation, storing, sale all the way to the point when it is being used. Packaging manufacturing technology depends on the choice of packaging material and the design of the product.