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The Web: still searching for relevancy

For many packaging professionals, today's Internet experience is both irritating and irrelevant. In our view, that's because packagers have been deluded into wasting time searching for data that's not there rather than focusing on finding what is likely to be "enWebbed." Packagers who log on to the Web to find a piece of market data, for instance, "how much aluminum foil was sold in the U.S.

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last year for pharmaceutical packaging?", almost always log off without the numbers they are looking for. That's because that kind of information-market statistics-is rarely part of the Web's gratis offerings. If you want good packaging market statistics, a dozen well-placed phone calls will still outpull two hours of Internet surfing.

There are exceptions. To get the most out of the World Wide Web (WWW), and preserve your peace of mind, don't think of it as a treasure trove of data to be mined. Instead, be prepared to encounter a lot of promotional hype and PR palaver. Nevertheless, an Internet search for packaging data can turn up some useful information:

Excellent (or at least as good as it gets) production and shipment data on glass containers is available from the Department of Commerce's Census Bureau by logging on to http://www.census.gov/ftp/pub/industry/m32g9611.txt. For the Food & Drug Administration's take on health-related issues-President Clinton's call for improved food processing and packaging standards, for instance-go to FDA's "What's New?" page at http://www.fda.gov/opacom/hpwhats.html.

The Glass Packaging Institute site (shown above), located at http://www.gpi.org, showcases some of the newest glass containers (but doesn't credit designers or manufacturers). At the Closure Manufacturers Association site you can order standard closure drawings for a couple of dozen metal or plastic caps at http://www.gpi.org/cmafins.htm.

By and large, however, the Web is a better place to locate suppliers and resources than market data and technical specifications. Be aware that the Web and the real world are two different realities. In the real world Crown Cork & Seal (Philadelphia, PA) is the largest packaging supplier anywhere. Not on the Web. In fact, CCS doesn't even have a home page. Nor does Silgan Containers Corp. (Woodland Hills, CA), now the largest producer of steel food cans in North America.

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