According to the report, Europe and North America dominated the global pharmaceutical packaging market, accounting for more than 65% of the overall market in 2013. Within North America, the U.S. will remain the largest consumer of biodegradable packaging. Country-wise, the U.S. is the top consumer of biodegradable packaging product globally, and is also the largest market, growing at a CAGR lower than the global average until 2019. Member countries of the EU—Sweden, Switzerland, U.K., and Germany—are the key markets in the European biodegradable packaging market and constitute the majority of the market size. In terms of growth rate, biodegradable plastic packaging is expected to register a double digit CAGR from 2013 to 2019.
Food packaging and beverage packaging are the topmost packaging application segments by revenue, wherein PLA and starch-based plastics dominate the biodegradable plastic packaging market and boxboard and corrugated board dominate the market for biodegradable paper packaging.
While food packaging takes the topmost position in the biodegradable packaging market with more than 70% share by value of biodegradable plastic packaging and more than 40% share by value of biodegradable paper packaging, maximum growth in the future is expected from the beverage packaging application segment. Plastics and polymers are the largest consumed raw material for the beverage packaging products and are being fast replaced by their biodegradable substitutes such as PLA, starch-based plastics, PHA, etc., due to their ease in design, excellent barriers properties, and cost-effectiveness.
The biodegradable paper packaging market, being a highly mature and predominant market, shows higher market value share in the global biodegradable packaging market than the biodegradable plastic packaging market does. The biodegradable plastic packaging market on the other hand, being in its introductory phase, shows tremendous potential for growth and is expected to grow at a CAGR of double digits.
TAPPI
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