They’re dangerous to open, too. The “king of slice and dice” has an annual casualty rate of roughly 6,000 consumers, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, and that’s only counting injuries that land consumers in ERs, not self-treated ones. Typical injuries include cuts and puncture wounds from household tools used to open clamshells, and lacerations from sharp and jagged plastic edges created during the opening process. There are also reports of sprained wrists and strained shoulder muscles. Then there’s the “wrap rage,” the heightened levels of anger and frustration that consumers experience with hard-to-open blister packs and plastic clamshells. This wrap rage often leads consumers to reach for potentially unsafe tools – wire cutters, ice picks, razor blades, box-cutters, hedge trimmers, you name it – which, of course, increases their risk of physical injury. Furthermore, many clamshells are made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and while PVC gives a clamshell its strength, it’s difficult to recycle – posing a sustainability concern for manufacturers and retailers committed to reducing their reliance on plastic packaging. BlisterGuard and EnviroGuard are award-winning paperboard specialty packages – and proven clamshell alternatives.

These solutions offer the same level of security against in-store tampering and pilferage as plastic clamshells, but because they’re primarily (or oftentimes, entirely) paperboard-based, BlisterGuard and EnviroGuard are more sustainable packaging choices.