By Jim Johnson
SENIOR STAFF REPORTER
Published: January 9, 2014 6:00 am ET
Plastic is now king when it comes to beverage caps and closures.
Research company Canadean Ltd. is out with word that plastic beverage caps and closures have overtaken their metal brethren in that category.
Plastics held 49 percent of the market last year compared to 48 percent for metal, Canadean said Jan. 7. Metal closures had a 51 percent share in 2007.
Innovation in plastic caps and closures is expected to continue tipping the scales in favor of plastic caps and closures in the coming years, Canadean said, as 52 percent of the market is expected to be held by plastics in 2017.
"Plastics closures crossed a critical threshold last year in overtaking the share of their metal counterparts across all CPG end-markets," said Dominic Cakebread, director of packaging services at Canadean, in a news release.
Growing use of plastic containers as well as improvements in closure design, materials and systems have helped fuel the plastic closure increase, the research company said.
"It is the greater flexibility of plastics to adapt to the changing demands of the closure market that give them their on-going advantage," Cakebread said.
Canadean has published a report, "Innovation in Caps and Closures," that examines the issue. | 
