The next time you’re in a convenience store, take a moment to glance at the petroleum products on the shelf. You will likely see a few varieties of motor oil and possibly some transmission fluid, brake fluid and power steering fluid for drivers who need to “top off.” Walk through an auto parts store and the selection of petroleum products becomes overwhelming with various automotive fluids stacked from floor to ceiling.
Until recently, those petroleum-based fluids were generally sold in rigid plastic bottles or jugs made from high-density polyethylene, or HDPE. However, the packaging industry is constantly innovating and devising new solutions that offer enhanced convenience, functionality and sustainability. That spirit of innovation has come to petroleum products packaging in the form of flexible spouted pouches.
This blog post will explore the various advantages of using spouted pouches as a packaging material for petroleum products.
4 Reasons to Use Spouted Pouches for Petroleum Products
#1: Precision Pouring and Convenience
The spouted design of the pouch enables controlled dispensing of the liquid contents, minimizing waste and ensuring precise application. Plus, the resealable closure helps reduce waste by enabling long-term storage and re-use of the same package.
#2: Durability and Safe Handling
Petroleum products require packaging that can withstand the rigors of distribution while preventing leaks and spills. Spouted pouches are made from robust, multi-layer materials that offer excellent puncture resistance. This ensures that the petroleum products within are securely contained, reducing the risk of environmental contamination and enhancing safety during transportation and storage.
#3 Branding and Consumer Appeal
Spouted pouches present a much larger printable surface area than a standard plastic bottle with a label. Petroleum product manufacturers can promote their brands in vivid color from edge to edge across the entire pouch. Instantly eye-catching and leaving ample room for promotional messages, a spouted pouch makes a far bigger branding impact than a bottle and label.
#4: Environmental Sustainability
At first glance, this may seem like a disadvantage given that rigid HDPE bottles are often easier to recycle than flexible packaging. However, read the fine print on your community’s recycling program and you may see this:
No oil bottles allowed.
Residential recycling programs often do not accept items that have been contaminated by hazardous materials, such as petroleum, and specifically recommend that empty containers of motor oil, transmission fluid and the like go in the trash. From there, they end up in a landfill — and that’s where the equation changes.
Flexible packaging formats like spouted pouches offer many sustainability advantages when compared to rigid plastic bottles:
- Manufacturing a plastic HDPE bottle requires dramatically more water than a comparable spouted pouch.
- Spouted pouches have a much higher product-to-package ratio, meaning that they utilize far fewer raw materials than a rigid bottle.
- Fewer materials means less weight. HDPE bottles generally weigh 2-3 times as much as a comparable spouted pouch. This weight, in turn, results in higher fossil fuel consumption throughout the shipping and distribution process necessary to bring the product to market.
- When disposed of in a landfill, spouted pouches represent a fraction of the physical space and raw material of a rigid plastic bottle.
- Ongoing advancements in the use of recyclable and biodegradable materials for spouted pouches are expected to swing the balance even further going forward.
The future of petroleum packaging is bright and spouted pouches are leading the way on a variety of levels. Look for the industry’s adoption of spouted pouches to accelerate thanks to the potential to enhance convenience, build brands and reduce environmental impact.
Taylor: Spouted Pouches for Petroleum Products
Taylor is a leading provider of custom packaging solutions for the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry. This expertise extends to the manufacturing of flexible packaging solutions, such as spouted pouches, and to petroleum products packaging specifically.
Taylor is a member of the Petroleum Packaging Council (PPC). We have also invested in specialized equipment that is ideal for the manufacturing of spouted pouches for petroleum products. Our PCMC “Fusion Series” central impression (CI) printing press checks all of the boxes for this application:
- 52” width for production efficiency
- Prints in up to 10 colors for branding impact
- Fast changeovers with minimal cleanup waste
- Water-based inks
See for yourself how spouted pouches are changing the game in petroleum packaging. Contact your Taylor representative to learn more.
