Packaging
The highest-volume use of plastics
More plastic is turned into packaging than into anything else — cheap, light, formable, and a barrier that keeps food fresh and products safe. Every gram and every cent counts at this scale, and sustainability is now the loudest design pressure.
Rigid packaging
Bottles, jars, tubs and caps — blow- and injection-moulded for stiffness and a good seal.
Flexible films
Bags, wraps and pouches — extruded or blown film, often multilayer to add a gas barrier.
Compostable & bio
Cutlery, trays and produce bags where end-of-life matters more than long shelf life.
The barrier-vs-recyclability trap
The multilayer films that keep oxygen and moisture out — the ones that make food last — are almost impossible to recycle, because they fuse several different polymers into one sheet. Mono-material designs recycle cleanly but barrier worse. That trade, performance against end-of-life, is the whole story of modern packaging.
Part of the Make map. Browse the cited database, or see the flagship branches — aerospace, energy and medical.