What changes
when you switch.

Plastic is moulded and then decorated, usually with a label, a shrink sleeve or a pad print. Metal is lithographed flat, before it is formed, so the artwork is part of the surface rather than applied to it.

That produces denser colour, sharper edges and no label edge to lift. A matte finish on metal stays matte through distribution; a matte film on plastic scuffs to a shine.

Weight is the first thing a customer registers and the hardest thing to fake. Tinplate at 0.23 mm gives a pack mass and a cold first touch that moulded polypropylene does not.

The closure carries this too. A metal mechanism has a defined action and an audible seat. A plastic one flexes, and flex reads as cheap whether or not the pack is well made.

Metal holds its form under compression, which matters in a case, on a pallet and in a delivery bag. A dented tin is still a sealed tin; a cracked plastic hinge is a failed pack.

It also holds tolerance over temperature. Plastic closures loosen in heat and stiffen in cold, which is why an airtight claim on plastic is harder to defend across a supply chain.

Steel is the most recycled material in the world and the collection stream already exists. Magnetic separation pulls tinplate out automatically, with no consumer decision involved.

What slows that down is a second material: any liner holding a seal has to come out before the steel goes in the stream. Four lines in our Eco range are specified without one: all tinplate, recyclable kerbside with steel, certified to the same standard.

Metal is not transparent, so a pack that has to show the product needs a window or a different material entirely.

It costs more per unit than injection-moulded plastic at high volume, and tooling a new form is expensive. If the only requirement is the cheapest compliant container, plastic wins and we would tell you so.