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Packaging
Top packaging trends:
fears are encouraging brands to take a holistic approach to packaging’s environmental impact, ushering in an age of Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) focused on more than just end-of-life disposal.
For example, Huhtamaki and Stora Enso welcomed an LCA finding paper-based packaging more eco- friendly than reusable tableware
in quickservice restaurants. The PP-based multi-use system generated 2.7 times more CO2 equivalent emissions than the paper-based single-use system.
Carbon labeling continues to gain traction. In January, Amcor began offering printed Reducing CO2 Packaging labels on a range of flexible packs.
Trend three:
Fibre-based Frenzy
Innovation in plastic-replacement fiber-based solutions is booming
as brands explore plastic waste escape routes and new connections with the enlarging eco-conscious consumer base. Even in more technically challenging categories like confectionery bar wrappers and pouches, full-scale paper packaging conversions are occurring, notably Nestlé’s Smarties.
More stringent regulations
are driving the transition from single-use plastics to fibre-based alternatives. The EU’s Plastics Strategy requires all packaging
to be recyclable or reusable in an economically viable way by 2030, while its recently introduced plastics tax imposes a €0.80/kg levy on non- recycled plastic packaging waste.
According to Innova Market Insights’ 2021 survey, half of US consumers (49 per cent) regard packaging’s recyclability as its most important sustainability credential, followed by reusability (44 per cent) and recycled material use (35 per cent). Meanwhile, 72 per cent
the move to fibre
Innova Market Insights’ Top Packaging Trends for 2021, produced in collaboration with PackagingInsights, reveal an accelerating move to fib e-based packaging.
For the print business packaging is a land of opportunity, after all you can’t eat your corn flakes off the internet, and
the demand will only increase as populations grow, and households shrink. Trends are key to determining investment decisions.
Home Delivery is identified as 2021’s leading trend. As much
of the world perseveres with Covid-19 social restrictions, demand for grocery and premium food and beverage home delivery is skyrocketing, presenting new challenges and opportunities
for consumer packaging. For
print businesses the increasing consumption of food meals, and to a lesser extent beverages, at home means opportunity.
The Carbon Catalyst is trend number two, and details the increasing relevance of packaging’s carbon footprint as the key indicator of environmental sustainability amid increasingly stark climate change warnings, with fibre-based packaging scoring highly over plastic. The third trend, Fibre-
based Frenzy, documents the rising sophistication and availability
of fibre-based solutions as viable alternatives to single-use plastics.
Trend four, Hygiene Heroics, explores innovation in touch- free solutions and antimicrobial
technologies catering to heightened hygiene concerns, while trend five, Reusable Revolution, spotlights the increasing scalability of reusable packaging models targeting a zero- waste world.
Trend one: Home Delivery Haven
E-commerce is a long-term trend, exponentially expanded by the Covid-19 pandemic. Home food delivery has especially soared as a consequence of lockdowns and social restrictions. According to a recent survey by Innova Market Insights, 35 per cent of global consumers have increased their home food delivery use since the virus outbreak (2021).
Moreover, the survey indicates 15 per cent of global consumers do not expect to return to regular grocery habits post-pandemic. In the UK, Germany and the US, as many as 20 per cent of consumers expect to continue with Covid-19 purchasing habits. Furthermore, Amcor is predicting the online European grocery market will grow 66 per cent by 2023.
Trend two: The
Carbon Catalyst
Anti-plastic fervor fueled by the Blue Planet effect has expanded into what could be coined the Greta Thunberg effect. Climate change
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