Packaging refers to products placed on the market made of any materials, intended for the storage, protection, transport, delivery, or presentation of any products, from raw materials to processed goods.
This definition states the widely known fact of human use, since the dawn of material existence, of various types of packaging, e.g., in the form of vessels, to mention only the biblical account of the event in Cana of Galilee. The material history of packaging proves the use of the following for their production:
– glass and ceramics by the Phoenicians around 1300 B.C.
– wood fiber by the Romans around 300 B.C.
– paper around 1000 A.D. (although the ancient Egyptians already knew a similar product – papyrus, used for writing purposes)
– tinplate from around 1730, though widely used only after the introduction of hot sterilization for food products packed in tin cans
– plastics from around 1950, first PE and PVC, and from 1970 PET, which began to displace other materials used for flexible and rigid packaging
– composite, multi-layer materials (cardboard-foil-metallized) of the TetraPak type from 1952.
When people produced most products themselves or obtained them in their immediate surroundings, packaging was unnecessary. Its usefulness became apparent at the moment of production beyond current consumption needs and the subsequent process of developing the exchange of goods. At that time, packaging was already being shaped in terms of protective and logistical functions, and over time, also (arche-) marketing functions.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 2003/5.