Berlin Packaging Hosts Roundtable on the Future of Sustainable Packaging
At the recent Luxe Pack Monaco trade show, Berlin Packaging coordinated a roundtable on “Shaping the Future of Sustainable Packaging” to discuss emerging consumer trends, upcoming regulations, eco-friendly packaging design, and collaboration among key stakeholders, according to an article in Packaging Insights.
“Sustainability is crucial for the future of people and the planet, and packaging plays a crucial role in this process,” declared Dario Bassetti, Chief Marketing Officer of Berlin Packaging EMEA. “We are aware that only through dialogue with all the stakeholders, first and foremost our customers and suppliers, can we overcome the current challenges, which involve consumers becoming increasingly demanding on sustainability issues.”
The roundtable featured speakers with Berlin Packaging, Quantis, Rituals, Argotier, and Tapi Group. Quantis, an environmental consulting company, identified five trends that are upending the packaging industry and will raise the level of performance in the next several years.
First, regulations are becoming more stringent to reduce packaging waste. Next, the growth of e-commerce may lead to a convergence of primary and secondary packaging and to new designs that complement automated logistics systems. According to Quantis, consumer spending is increasingly focused on comfort, personalization, well-being, and value, while producers face higher costs in the packaging value chain, reducing their retail sales margins. AI applications and new technologies can simplify package design and help companies reduce their material waste.
To uncover sustainable packaging solutions, Berlin Packaging targets three core areas: material circularity, optimization, and reuse. Refillable packaging benefits personal care products as more customers prefer refillable options. For example, through its partnership with home bath and body brand Rituals, Berlin Packaging has redesigned hundreds of products with a view to circularity, creating refill packaging systems for day and night creams, body creams, and scented sticks.
According to Berlin, material reductions will require greater use of PCR recycled content and engagement in extended producer responsibility programs to improve the collection of separated waste. Sustainability begins at the package design phase, adopting comparable and measurable criteria shared among the different stakeholders in the supply chain and integrated throughout the production process.