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Keeping up with current packaging and supply chain trends can be difficult, yet extremely impactful for your company. It’s one thing to be competitive in the market and another to be ahead of the curve, leading your industry towards the future of packaging solutions, appealing to customers, and staying proactive on regulations.
So, how do you land in this position rather than simply trying to stay afloat?
From ongoing conversations I’m having with our customers, industry analysts, thought leaders, and colleagues, I’ve outlined four key trends that I believe will help advance your business forward in 2025.
Exploring Alternative Packaging Materials
With a shift toward more sustainable packaging, materials that are natural, easily recyclable, and have the best environmental impact possible have been rising in popularity. Additionally, many pieces of legislation around the world have been passed around sustainable packaging mandates and reducing the amount of single-use plastics.
One big push recently that will only rise in popularity is the trend of paperization. Paperization refers to the increased use of paper or fiber-based materials, rather than plastic or fossil fuel based materials. While this can be a more sustainable packaging option, the quality of paper, quantity being used, and overall bigger picture that encapsulates the pros and cons of using paper over other materials is important to consider.
For example, manufacturing paper products can produce 3.5 times more greenhouse gasses than plastic, and it takes more truckloads to ship. However, paper comes from renewable resources that don’t require fossil fuels and can be biodegradable, leading to less ocean debris and long-term waste. Thus, it is critical to look at the environmental impact of the entire product lifecycle when exploring sustainable packaging materials and to choose which one makes sense for your company’s goals.
One of our partners, Paul Nowak, Executive Director of Greenblue, recently chatted with Laura Foti on the Beyond the Shelf podcast saying, “we’re seeing well-managed paperization as a major trend. So paper with a chain of custody, and not just randomly purchase paper products. We're seeing new innovations for those flexible fibers in part because I think people are anticipating paper will have a lower taxation or a lower cost to it. So that's for sure a trend I would continue to watch.” While the debate of paper versus plastic packaging is continuous, paper products created with sustainability in mind can be a great option.
In addition to paper, there are other natural materials gaining popularity in packaging design. While these may not be scalable or suitable for certain use cases, their developments are definitely something to keep an eye on. Some of these materials include:
- Ocean-based materials: seaweed, chitin, and algae that are incorporated into films, foams, coatings, pellets, and polymers
- Substitutes such as starch, cellulose, PLA, polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), and other biodegradable materials and polymers
- Plant-based materials: Sugarcane, coconut, hemp, and cornstarch as alternatives to plastics
Regulations and Compliance
It is no secret that regulations and compliance, especially around sustainability, have become a large topic of discussion for teams across companies. While regulations themselves are not a new trend, the growth and complexity of regulations cannot be ignored.
Some areas of legislation to be informed upon at both the state and federal level are:
- Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)
- Labeling Requirements
- Single-Use Plastics (SUP) Requirements and Plastic Taxes that result in legislation like California’s SB-54 Act
- Requirements for Food Packaging and Materials
- Reporting Requirements
One of the biggest uncertainties in the regulatory space that you need to keep up with are Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations. Historically, the FTC Green Guidelines have been a comprehensive source for sustainability claims. However, EPR regulations are difficult due to their variability by state, region, and country. With this in mind, companies can be proactive rather than reactive by setting achievable sustainability goals, taking ownership of their data, and having tools like Lorax EPI that partners with Specright to properly analyze and report on critical sustainability data.
The urgency for EPR compliance is now. The Circular Action Alliance (CAA), a Producer Responsibility Organization (PRO) that implements EPR laws for paper and packaging, is pushing California, Colorado, and especially Oregon to comply with EPR laws. By March 31, 2025, producers with obligations in Oregon must submit their first report, giving companies only a couple of months to get all their data together.
Aside from regulations and compliance directly related to sustainability, another rise of concern has been around food packaging and safety. Safety compliance related to food products has always been a topic of conversation, but has become an increasingly large topic. There have been several recent studies showing that some packaging materials are leaking harmful chemicals into food. While many cases are due to plastics, there has also been a rise in harmful chemicals from paper packaging due to inks and dyes that are not food safe. It is critical to consistently verify that your company’s packaging is compliant and safe for consumers, especially if changes in packaging have been made.
Recyclability
Aligning with other popular trends of 2024 and 2025, packaging recyclability has become increasingly a topic of discussion amongst consumers and brands alike. Brought on by bans on single-use plastic and consumer preferences, producers are being pressured to implement recyclable materials. There has also been a rise of interest in compostable and reusable packaging, as well as advanced and chemical recycling when it comes to plastic.
Transparency with consumers is extremely important when it comes to packaging recyclability. One way to be transparent is through labeling. Recently, Specright announced a partnership with How2Recycle, a standardized labeling system that clearly communicates disposal instructions to the public. By utilizing data that is already in Specright to create proper labeling, companies can empower consumers who want to positively impact the environment to properly dispose of the product. This is great for the environment and it positively impacts a consumer’s perception of the company.
Not only is recyclability important to consumers, but also lawmakers and organizations. The Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO), formerly known as the National Packaging Covenant, is one such organization. With a goal of establishing a more circular economy, they have several recyclability targets to hit by 2025 that are making impacts in both the industry and with the Australian government, promoting the importance of recyclability in packaging.
AI/ Machine Learning
With the growing capabilities of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), now is the time to learn how to use it to positively impact your business and workflows. The phrase “work smarter, not harder” has never been as applicable.
AI-driven machine learning systems are already utilized in several parts of the manufacturing and packaging process. They capture and analyze images of final products, enhancing quality control assessments, streamline product sorting, and boost operational efficiency. By being able to increase quality control efficiencies, companies don’t have to worry about damaged products making it out of the facility. It’s also useful when it comes to end-of-life product control, as this technology can sort through what’s recyclable and what’s not when a product is disposed of.
Specright is also leveraging AI with the release of SpecGPT, our AI-powered chatbot. Powered by ChatGPT, this tool enables “conversational” search capabilities within the Specright platform to give you instant access to data, create effortless searches, and provide you with downloadable data. For example, if you are looking for all specs that use corrugated material, as well as have specific dimensions that you determine, these results can be at the tip of your fingers with SpecGPT.
Technology like this not only saves your company time, but also has cost savings and higher accuracy outcomes.
Conclusion
These 4 trends - alternative packaging materials, regulations and compliance, recyclability, and AI and machine learning - are not topics to overlook in 2025, especially as a packaging industry professional.
While none of these trends are easy to tackle – they all must be addressed. How do you do so? With a strong data foundation. I truly believe if you leverage a digitized and centralized platform for your specification data, your company can more easily source alternative sustainable materials, innovate faster to meet consumer demands, and scale sustainable packaging solutions as more laws are implemented. If you are still leveraging spreadsheets, shared drives, or disconnected legacy systems, your company will not be able to maintain a competitive edge in 2025… or beyond.
To find out how to tackle these trends and be best prepared, contact us today.
