OSC announces 2025 Packaging Innovation Award winners

Piedmont, California-based nonprofit One Step Closer (OSC) has announced the winners of its 2025 OSC Packaging Innovation Awards.

The awards are meant to recognize brands and materials providers prioritizing environmental stewardship and advancing the sustainability of their packaging and life cycle management.

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“The Packaging Innovation Awards showcase brands and material providers that are leading the way in rethinking packaging to reduce waste, improve sustainability and drive industrywide change,” says Eliza Brady, director of the Packaging Collaborative at OSC. “By recognizing and amplifying these efforts, we hope to accelerate the adoption of packaging solutions that balance functionality, consumer appeal and environmental responsibility.”

Arcata, California-based Blue Heron Botanicals, which utilizes home compostable or curbside recyclable paper tubes for limp balms and herbal balms, received the Innovation in Materials (brands) award. The company uses 100 percent postconsumer paper lip balm tubes and larger salve tubes made with 60 percent U.S. Forest Stewardship Council- (FSC-) certified paper and 40 percent postconsumer recycled paper with waxed lining.

“I was ready to launch an herbal product line using plastic lip balm tubes, vinyl labels and tins with vinyl labels, then I read an article about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch sometime around 2010,” says Blue Heron owner Theora Jackson. “I was shocked by the sheer amount of waste floating in the oceans and could not have my brand putting plastic waste out into the world. So, I stopped where I was with planning the brand and did a deep dive on sustainable materials and committed myself to creating the most sustainable herbal skincare line available.”

Rohnert Park, California-based World Centric won the Innovation in Materials (material providers) award for its fiber-based scoop for use in packaged nutrition or protein powders found at grocery stores. The scoops are made from plant fiber from renewable resources, primarily sugarcane bagasse, and are certified to break down in a home or commercial compost pile.

Activist Skincare, Laguna Niguel, California, has received the Innovation in Refillable Packaging Systems award for its refillable skincare products. The company says it prioritizes reducing carbon emissions and plastic scrap.

By using mylar packaging and promoting refillable products, the company says it achieves a 99 percent reduction in shipping emissions and an 80 percent reduction in plastic use. Customers can refill their original glass containers with pouches ordered from the brand’s website, and Activist Skincare also offers prepaid shipping labels for recycling empty pouches.

Winners were selected by a panel of judges with expertise in materials science, waste management and sustainable manufacturing and were supported by sponsors such as SpecRight and Trayak.

In addition to industry exposure and recognition, OSC says each winner will receive a free full-year membership to the OSC Packaging Collaborative, which the organization says plays an important role in fostering relationships across the compostable materials supply chain, researching sustainable alternatives, educating brands and consumers and advocating for policy changes that can drive systemic improvements in packaging sustainability.