Food packaging costs are rising because of the war in Iran, said Christopher Mejía Argueta, a research scientist at the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics.
Most processed foods are packaged in plastics derived from oil.
Just as oil price increases have put up prices for gasoline, diesel and fertilizer, they will certainly impact food packaging.
Agueta said there are alternatives such as glass, reuseables and recycling, but none of those are easy or cheap alternatives.
Glass is also much heavier and fragile.
Even if returns, such as glass, are used, there are added transportation costs, he said, and the challenge of converting packaging lines.
There is already a shortage of truck drivers, he said, so ir will be a challenge to truck returns.
