Packaging Materials Sustainability and Future
01. Create a sustainable future for packaging
The proposed amendments to the European Union Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive, published on 30 November 2022, clarify the relationship between the European Green Deal, the Circular Economy Plan, waste legislation and the Carbon Agenda to create a more coherent and clear agenda than ever before, and provide clear signals about business opportunities and risks.
It is clear that companies face more specific and pressing requirements not only in terms of the recyclability of packaging (which will be subject to more regulated standards) and the minimum recycled content of plastics. Increased regulatory intervention in the area of reuse and refill is another feature, but the industry has not fully realized it.
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As Mattia Pellegrini (head of the European Union Commission DG ENV sector) shared at the Sustainable Packaging Summit in Lisbon last September, mandatory reuse targets will be introduced, with levels likely to increase between now and 2040. Reuse targets will be based on primary, secondary, tertiary packaging as well as each sector.
Together, these represent a cog shift in Europe's environmental expectations for packaged consumer goods - and should be seen as a blueprint for global progress as the UN plastic pollution treaty advances towards global regulatory consistency.
How to address barriers to reuse/refill? How can progress and investment in recycled materials be accelerated? How can all stakeholders coordinate and collaborate more effectively to optimize sustainable transformation? These will be fundamental questions for packaging in 2023.
They will also be at the heart of our mission to help guide the value chain towards a sustainable future for packaging, among all the initiatives and discussions at the next Sustainable Packaging Summit.
02. Alternative packaging materials
The packaging industry has been looking for alternatives to fossil fuel materials. To meet the challenge of bioplastic plants competing with food production, the industry is investigating the use of non-food crops such as cellulose and seaweed. Innovative technologies also focus on inedible by-products from food crop production.
To date, the development of such materials has been relatively small, but by 2022 we are seeing some promising scale-ups and partnerships.
At the Innovation Horizons conference in Amsterdam, interesting pitches were heard - for example, a start-up using red seaweed and another extracting natural biopolymers from agricultural residues.
The industry is passionate and motivated, and momentum is expected to pick up pace in 2023.
Startup Notpla recently partnered with packaging producer Coveris to launch seaweed-coated carton packaging with oil and water resistance properties, and expects to see more such developments in 2023.
Trees play an important role in reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. By 2022, there are interesting developments in alternative fiber materials.
A notable partnership is between Budweiser and Sustainable Fiber Technologies to use leftover barley straw to produce a secondary packaging solution for Corona beer, which won the "2022 Sustainability Award".
In addition, in the field of fiber-based packaging, Ukrainian start-up Releaf Paper has developed a process to convert cellulosic fibers from deciduous leaves into paper packaging products. The company has received a 2.5 million euro grant from the European Union Commission's EIC Accelerator 2022 programme, so the technology can be expected to gain momentum in 2023.
While it won't see fiber-based packaging completely replace plastic anytime soon - or not at all - it can be expected that brands large and small will continue to switch to paper solutions for certain applications. According to people familiar with the matter, this year is likely to see some particularly exciting technological advancements in the confectionery and snack industry, with some big companies such as Nestlé, Mars Wrigley and Ritter Sport certainly already launching their own paper production lines.
More will almost certainly be heard from the paper bottle space - Paboco's solution, already tried by the likes of Carlsberg, Coca-Cola and Absolute Vodka, is a well-known example. This year, a next-generation prototype of thisbottle is expected, which will also feature paper caps from Blue Ocean Closures.
But there are other innovators in this space: Pulpex and Stora Enso's paper bottle solution is moving further towards full commercialization by 2023, and has partnered with Kraft Heinz to develop a potential ketchup paper bottle.
The development of more efficient and recyclable paper packaging barrier solutions is also underway, and the coming year will undoubtedly see more examples in this area. Dispersion coatings for polymer-based coated cardboard to replace paper barrier layers are an interesting area to watch, with companies such as Walki and Kemira leading the way.
In addition to enhancing material properties, processability is also a challenge for paper packers. In this case, it would be desirable to see greater collaboration between machinery suppliers and packaging manufacturers, making it easier for brands to switch to these new paper-based solutions without compromising performance or cost.
Innovation aside, the industry still has some ongoing questions and controversies to address in 2023 and beyond. For example: Will products such as the aforementioned paper bottles remain a niche, or can they really replace plastic on a large scale?
Even the most advanced paper solutions leave some level of aluminum or plastic layer residue, so can the innovations currently underway really address the enormous challenge of full recyclability in waste paper streams?