Thinking ahead: Looking into the future of packaging

What does the packaging company of the future look like?

There will always be a role for packaging because it protects and promotes products and ensures they can be moved safely from where they are produced to where they are needed. With trends such as the growth in population, the emerging middle class and more people moving to cities, there is more need than ever before for ways to move products safely. At the same time, the demands on packaging are changing because we also need to be more sustainable. In addition to doing our job of helping to deliver products safely, we also need to think about what happens to our packaging after use and how we create a circular economy for it while reducing GHG emissions.

So the packaging company of the future will need expertise not only in the materials it chooses and the job it does to deliver products, but also in creating circular solutions and working in new ways to recover those materials or packages so they can be reused or recycled into new packaging.

What new technologies or products are you most excited about?

I’m most excited about the way we’ve been able to innovate more recyclable packages. If I think back to even just five years ago, there were people in the industry who were doubtful this level of recyclability could be achieved. Packaging converters were comfortable using the materials we had been using and creating packages using well-established processes. I think there were questions about whether, as an industry, it would even be possible to develop packages with the same performance and functionality that would also work within recycling systems. But through innovation and creativity, we’ve been able to develop new product platforms that bring both functionality and recyclability to Amcor’s packaging.

Witnessing the development of Amcor technologies like AmLite™, AmSky™ and AmFiber™ has been really exciting. At the same time, watching recycling systems mature and seeing the investments made in recycling starting to come to fruition in parallel with our work to create more recyclable packaging is another development I’ve been very excited to see.

What is the most important thing the packaging industry needs to get right in order to unlock a more sustainable future for packaging?

First and foremost, we need to create harmony across the industry on the design of packaging and its functionality for sustainability. If we can make all packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable, then consumers aren’t as confused about what to do with a package when they’re ready to dispose of it. But that’s not enough on its own. The other thing the packaging industry really needs to think about is how we interface with the rest of the value chain to ensure that our packages can be collected, that reuse systems really work and that packages are returned and can be used again. If we put a recyclable package on the market, we also need to be confident there will be appropriate recycling infrastructure available and that consumers will be willing to use it.

What trends do you think will have the greatest impact on the packaging industry in the coming years?

We’re seeing a big increase in regulations around the world that will shape the packaging industry in the coming years, especially related to extended producer responsibility. The desire for other parts of the packaging value chain – whether it’s waste management companies downstream or materials producers upstream – to directly participate in the development of circular economy solutions is increasing.

Another trend driving progress is the virtuous link between circularity and lower GHG emissions. When we make our packaging more circular by designing for recyclability, lowering the demand for virgin resources and using more recycled content, it almost always leads to a lower carbon footprint.

These are the types of trends that are ultimately going to have the biggest impact on the packaging industry, and that we’re working to help shape and respond to.

When you think of the future of the packaging industry, what is the ultimate long-term sustainability goal?

For me, the goal is to help people around the world be healthy, flourish and prosper, while at the same time finding ways to decouple the economic growth that’s needed to achieve this vision from demands on natural resources such as extraction and pollution. To the extent that we can build ways to do that, then both people and the environment will be better off.

When you think about the future of sustainability at Amcor, what are you most excited about?

I’m most excited that we can take the work we’ve already done – both in terms of our packaging and our thought leadership in helping to shape the industry – and continue to build on it in the future. It’s an opportunity to simultaneously make Amcor, our customers and the rest of the industry more successful and more sustainable.