Skip to main content
Search
Menu

Time for a paradigm shift in the packaging industry

Our society today does not function without packaging. Goods are ordered and delivered from one side of the globe to the other. Produced at one time to be consumed at another. Packaging plays a crucial part in sustainability, by being protective and durable, making transports lighter while using as little material as possible.

Plastics as a material type excel in all these properties, which explains why their use has increased more than 20x in the last 50 years. However, the versatility and diversity of these materials make them very hard to keep circulating within the material system. This is the packaging dilemma. 

Packaging provides large short-lived material flows that must become more circular in the future. In Sweden, consumers are generally good at sorting materials for recycling. But it is not the amount of material collected that creates circularity, but the amount of material that is actually recycled and becomes new products. The truth is that today only 16 percent of Swedes' plastic packaging is recycled, and even less on average within the EU. 

In order for us to achieve the EU target of 55 percent recycled plastic packaging by 2030, the entire business model for packaging needs to be reviewed. The growth of packaging in recent decades indicates that waste risks increasing even if we increase the recycling rate. In 2019, RISE conducted a feasibility study on the circularity of packaging on behalf of Intressentföreningen Packforsk. It showed, among other things, that investments in material design for recyclability and recycling processes must be quadrupled to meet transitions and future legal requirements.

Successfully transitioning to a sustainable system for packaging requires innovation and business transformation beyond what the industry has ever done before. It is not comfortable, the opportunities outsize the costs and are available to those willing to leave their comfort zone and challenge status quo.

Rethinking the packaging system report
Access the report by submitting your details in the form.

In order to achieve a sustainable material system, the virgin plastic input must be reduced. According to the report, this can only be done by implementing new circular business models and a transition to renewable materials. 

The report Rethinking the packaging system has been produced by RISE and Intressentföreningen Packforsk in collaboration with Grow. It is supplemented by a technical survey of the innovation landscape in packaging and packaging recycling, and a literature review and trend analysis projecting potential developments and outcomes to 2030. 

Would you like to read the report? Enter your details in the form on this page, and you will be able to download the report, free of charge.

Efterfrågan på papper i tryck- och skrivkvaliteter minskar och nu letar pappersproducenter efter nya material, nya produkter som de kan producera med sin befintliga infrastruktur. Samtidigt finns en växande efterfrågan på förpackningar, och särskilt hållbara förpackningar. – En del av de saker vi tittar på är framför allt återvunnet material från avfallsströmmar eller från saker som textilier eller saker som man kanske inte tänkt på, säger Paul Krochak, samordnare för cirkulära fiber-baserad förpackningar på RISE.
En av de stora utmaningarna för varumärkesägare nu är - Hur gör vi våra förpackningar mer hållbara? Detta betyder att man använder mindre plast, och fiberbaserade förpackningar är det naturliga valet. På H&M är hållbarhet en stor del av arbetet mot cirkularitet. Företaget har en förpackningsstrategi som går ut på att göra allt deras material återvinningsbart eller FEC-certifierat.
Ann Lorentzon

Contact person

Ann Lorentzon

Projektledare

Read more about Ann

Contact Ann
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

* Mandatory By submitting the form, RISE will process your personal data.