Around one third of the plastic produced worldwide is used for packaging. This is justified above all by its usefulness in conserving goods and reducing danger of breakage and by the transparency and the low weight of plastic packaging, which on average makes up only a small percentage of the product weight. This means savings in transportation costs and the CO2 balance, especially over longer distances. Nevertheless, there is a clear imbalance between the long life of product packaging, which can be up to several hundred years, and the short life of the product.