Packaging paradigm shift

As the climate crisis rages on, with 2023 having broken records for extreme weather events including droughts and forest fires, sustainability has never been more important. With this crisis in mind, businesses, particularly in the packaging sector, are adapting their practices to support their net-zero ambitions.

Packaging is vital to the operations of several industries and is consumed on a massive scale around the world, bringing with it a weighty environmental footprint. The plastic sector alone produces 1.8 billion tons of carbon emissions.

Sustainable packaging is the next step in the evolution of the sector to ensure the industry stays up to date with current demands.

In recent years, consumer interest in sustainable products has grown, with a WWF report in 2021 finding that worldwide internet searches for sustainable goods had increased by 71 percent from 2016. More recently, a 2023 global consumer survey found that 8 of 10 participants said they would pay more for sustainably sourced products.

In conjunction with this, legislation has been proposed to facilitate more sustainable packaging. For example, the Break Free from Plastic Pollution bill was reintroduced in Congress in October of last year and aims to establish extended producer responsibility (EPR) for various plastic products. The proposed bill would require all single-use beverage packaging to be reusable or recyclable.

It is therefore clear that the packaging market is undergoing a transformation, but many factors need to be considered to achieve truly sustainable packaging.

What to consider

The sustainable packaging market is set to change in several ways, and companies worldwide have taken the approach of swapping plastic for paper, largely because of negative public views of plastic.

A 2023 survey found that 55 percent of U.S. consumers prefer retailers that remove plastic from their packaging, while 50 percent actively take steps to increase their use of paper packaging.

Although the transition to paper has its benefits as the material is easily recyclable and biodegradable, shortcomings must be addressed. For example, the Northern Ireland Assembly found that a paper bag takes four times as much energy to produce than a plastic one.

Additionally, as paper is heavier than plastic, more vehicles are needed to transport the packaging, meaning more greenhouse gas emissions and more air pollution. Therefore, when looking at manufacturing processes and transportation, plastic is the greener option, though paper is more environmentally friendly when considering recycling and disposal. This demonstrates why businesses must look at the whole picture when deciding between paper and plastic packaging.

A 2023 study found that 61.6 million tons of paper end up in landfills every year in the U.S. alone, highlighting the need for reusable packaging regardless of material type. Reusable packaging can limit carbon emissions by up to 60 percent, reduce solid waste by as much as 86 percent and use up to 80 percent less water than single-use packaging.

Further, a recent report by Washington-based Oceana International found that a 10 percent increase in reusable beverage packaging by 2030 could remove more than 1 trillion single-use plastic bottles and cups from the environment and avoid the release of 153 billion single-use containers into oceans and waterways.

With a range of benefits, leading businesses are beginning to get involved, illustrated by Starbucks’ 2024 reusable cup scheme available in the U.S. and Canada.

In addition to reusability, where the packaging will end up must also be considered as emphasized by a 2023 study that highlights the importance of sufficient recycling infrastructure to properly collect, process and supply recovered material back into the supply chain.

While many countries, including the U.S., lack sufficient recycling infrastructure for compostable packaging, limiting the circularity of that material, Italy has been able to achieve a compostable packaging recycling rate of 52 percent by reaching 61 percent of the country through the introduction of Biorepack in 2021, Europe’s first EPR scheme. Biorepack holds producers accountable throughout their products’ life cycles, facilitating and funding the recycling and recovery of compostable packaging.

National recycling infrastructure like Biorepack ensures products like Mainetti’s compostable material bags are properly sorted and processed at the end of their six-month life span before being returned to the supply chain. Made from fully compostable biopolymer resin, Mainetti’s range of compostable flexible packaging is produced in India and includes carrier bags, bin bags, cutlery, cups and more. It is important that countries falling behind in compostable packaging follow Italy’s direction and invest in suitable material recovery facilities (MRFs) to set up a national infrastructure that makes the most out of this sustainable alternative.

While it is clear packaging must be contained in a closed-loop system for the good of the planet, a 2016 report by the U.K.-based Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF) found that this currently is not the case for the industry. Each year, the plastic packaging sector alone produces 78 million tons of product, where only 14 percent are collected for recycling and just 2 percent are fed back into the supply chain. The rest is incinerated, sent to landfill or left to leak into the environment.

It is essential that packaging be kept part of a closed-loop system to be reused again and again, regardless of material.

A leader in the circular economy, Mainetti has been a trusted partner to globally respected retail and apparel brands for more than 60 years. Providing a range of innovative sustainable packaging solutions and recycling processes, Mainetti strives to uphold EMF’s circular mission.

With 40 years of experience operating in the circular economy, Mainetti launched its closed-loop polyethylene (PE) recycling process, Polyloop, in 2021. The process clears printing and labeling from the materials, creating the highest level of clarity for postconsumer recycled content, making Polyloop the world’s first global initiative that allows retailers to source clear low-density polyethylene (LDPE) film containing at least 30 percent and up to 100 percent-recycled material.

Polyloop collects, processes and cleans postconsumer low-density polyethylene (LDPE) film and distributes it to Mainetti’s manufacturing sites in the U.K., Italy, , Bangladesh, Turkey, India, Sri Lanka and China.

A call to action for the packaging industry

While consumers demand more sustainable packaging options and government action aligns with these demands, it is important for businesses to supply innovative sustainable solutions like reusable packaging to keep up with the world’s changing concerns. Nevertheless, this is no simple feat with the current linear global packaging supply chain creating waste worldwide. It is important for businesses and governments alike to face the challenges of the circular economy head-on.

To do this, governments must install MRFs nationwide to move toward more sufficient recycling infrastructure that is equipped to deal with all packaging. Government investment will see MRFs optimizing their operations and investing in their sorting processes to improve the efficiency of material recovery, reducing landfilling of valuable material and improving circularity.

Additionally, MRF operators and packaging companies should work hand in hand, with MRFs providing valuable feedback on the recyclability of packaging for companies to take into consideration when designing eco-conscious packaging.

While the packaging industry continues to evolve, the circular economy must be properly prioritized if the devastating effects of the climate crisis are to be countered and the historical environmental damage of the packaging industry is to be rectified.

Mike Jones, who is based in the U.K., is head of innovation at Mainetti, a global manufacturer of hangers, packaging, labels, hangtags and on-garment trim for retail and apparel brands. The company’s U.S. headquarters are in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey. For more information, click here.