Packaging Industry Orienting towards Sustainability and Smart Packaging

Janifha Evangeline

The industrial packaging market is anticipated to reach USD 72.6 billion by 2025. The industrial packaging market is anticipated to see massive growth in the years to come owing to a surge in demand in end-use industries such as food & beverage and pharmaceutical. Other factors bolstering this market include acceleration in industrial activities particularly in the developing nations, growth in modern retailing, and an increase in consumer income.

By analyzing the packaging trends & global market projections, as well as emerging technology, it is possible for us to get a pretty good glimpse into what the packaging industry will potentially look like in the near future. We will be looking at how sustainability and design/smart packaging are set to transform the packaging industry, in this article.

Reshaping packaging

While we recognize the classic cardboard boxes, bags & bottles, the future may be reshaping these with new products and raw materials that are going to be used in the packaging industry.

Owing to the surge in consumer demand, there is an increase in the need for convenience and this, in turn, calls for innovative upgrades as well as technological advancements which open new doors of opportunities for businesses.

Dissolvable packaging

An interesting, as well as innovative alternative that removes the reliance on fossil fuels and possesses huge potential to reduce the carbon footprint massively, is exactly what consumers are looking for today and this is where Edible packaging comes into play.

Leveraging raw materials that are extracted from natural substances such as algae, natural sweeteners & natural dyes and using the skins of fruits & vegetables displays the huge potential for offering the food industry a multitude of options related to colors, designs, etc. Moreover, it also renders an exciting experience for consumers.

Design Boom - a London-based sustainable packaging start-up that was looking to shift from selling its water bubbles from pop-ups to challenging plastic waste on a global scale piloted its water bubbles at major sporting events.

While this is an innovative way that helps in combating plastics, it may be becoming a norm sooner than we think. Reducing waste is not just limited to the food & beverage landscape, but also household items. We have witnessed a great emergence of water-dissolvable packaging for dishwashing & laundry detergents that are becoming more normalized & part of the

mainstream as time goes on.

Another type of packaging that is gaining traction is cornstarch-based packaging. It is becoming famous in the retail industry and the food & beverage industry. Items that are produced using corn starch using as one of the raw materials like bags, takeaway containers & cutlery are becoming popular in the fast-food industry.

One such company that has developed a bioplastic from corn starch that is used in the manufacturing of biodegradable bags is Earthsoul India.

Space saving packaging

Transporting & storing huge amounts of packaging is also seen as less eco-friendly as planes, ships trucks & planes transport packages to huge warehouses for storing products. This ultimately ends up in a huge landfill if the stock/goods aren’t sold to customers. Specifically, the food & beverage packaging industry produces a huge amount of waste. Therefore, there is a great opportunity for space-saving packaging which would help in reducing mass transport, storage & waste.

Therefore, what is space-saving packaging according to the packaging design industry? The packaging design industry has come up with several new designs and products and is waving goodbye to the well-known bottle design we all know. We are witnessing more square/rectangular packaging for stacking as well as storage purposes and it doesn’t look like the most exciting design change since we have had both these beverage packaging for a while. But, this concept is now gaining a huge amount of attention among millennials as boxed water started to become very trendy on social media platforms and it is now becoming a norm in the beverage industries.

Not just that, boxed beverages also tie into sustainability. This is because the use of plastic for manufacturing boxed drinks is reduced to a greater extent, leaving it to paper & aluminum layers to do the task.

Sidel offers AYA – an innovative eco-friendly packaging design concept for water. The result of this concept is a great match for circular economy needs as it is not just sustainable but also cost-effective and helps in enhancing industrial production efficiency.

Smart packaging

Today, smart packaging also is popularly known as intelligent & active packaging, is witnessing massive growth in the packaging industry. Smart packaging revenues in the year 2015 reached USD 10.8 Billion and are anticipated to reach USD 26.7 billion by 2024, as per a recent report by Grand View Research.
Smart packaging renders multiple value-added benefits such as eye-catching visuals, authentication, enhanced unboxing experiences, product preservation & protection, security & connectivity, from a consumer perspective.

Although smart packaging is not providing any new shape to the classics, it is reshaping the purpose as well as the capabilities of packaging, and this helps the packaging industry to explore the unknown.

Is It Fresh is a Germany-based company that offers IoT-based packaging products. It offers a product that is a sensor-based supply chain that lets consumers not only scan through their mobile phones but also view the product catalog, communicate as well as measure the product quality.

The road ahead

As today’s consumers move in search of numerous advanced & sustainable methods, packaging manufacturers, as well as consumers, will benefit from efforts that will not only revolutionize the customer experience, but also the manufacturing & shipping and environment protection. However, the manufacturing brands that adapt and incorporate these future trends into their packaging strategies will get the benefits of being ahead of the curve.