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Sustainable Packaging Trends at Pack EXPO 2025: Packaging World · Through the Line: Packaging and Processing

0:03
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Through the Line, the podcast exploring innovations and information across the packaging and processing landscape.
0:11
SPEAKER_00: From topics impacting consumer packaged goods and healthcare packaging to the latest technologies in food processing operations.
0:22
SPEAKER_02: Hello, welcome.
0:23
SPEAKER_02: You're listening to the Through the Line podcast.
0:25
SPEAKER_02: I'm Matt Reynolds, editor of Packaging World magazine, and I'm speaking with Anne-Marie Mohan, senior editor of Packaging World.
0:31
SPEAKER_02: Anne-Marie, thanks for sitting down with me for this one.
0:34
SPEAKER_02: Hi, Matt.
0:35
SPEAKER_02: Happy to be here.
0:36
SPEAKER_02: Good.
0:37
SPEAKER_02: So we're both looking ahead to Pac Expo International.
0:40
SPEAKER_02: That hits the McCormick Place in Chicago on October 18th through the 21st.
0:45
SPEAKER_02: Only comes around in Chicago, the big show every other year.
0:49
SPEAKER_02: And when it's in our backyard like it is, that means that nobody in the city has an excuse to cover it like we do.
0:54
SPEAKER_02: We're both Chicagoans or Chicago area anyway.
0:57
SPEAKER_02: So we were it's going to be on our turf.
0:59
SPEAKER_02: That's why we're taking it in pieces because there's so many pieces to put together here.
1:03
SPEAKER_02: So the next few podcasts are going to be different slices of the show.
1:07
SPEAKER_02: What we expected to see, what do we expect to see, what we've seen at recent shows, different areas that have momentum.
1:13
SPEAKER_02: But today we're going to be talking about sustainability, materials, and the machines that have to run them.
1:18
SPEAKER_02: We're going to be talking about recyclable structures, compostables, the push to paper, and the equipment side of it all, how these new formats run on existing or new machinery, retrofits or otherwise.
1:29
SPEAKER_02: So, Anne-Marie, you've always covered the sustainability beat.
1:32
SPEAKER_02: It's been under your umbrella more than anybody else, and you've been sitting on a stack of notes since at least the fall.
1:38
SPEAKER_02: Do you want to get started?
1:41
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
1:42
SPEAKER_01: And I'll tell you the one thing that really stayed with me last year after going through all the show hauls was that suppliers are no longer asking their customers to accept trade-offs when we're talking about sustainability and sustainable materials.
2:00
SPEAKER_01: For years, it seemed like if a brand owner wanted to jump into something more sustainable, there was always a but.
2:07
SPEAKER_01: It runs slower.
2:08
SPEAKER_01: It needs a line trial.
2:10
SPEAKER_01: You have to give up some shelf life.
2:12
SPEAKER_01: But in Las Vegas, that really seemed to flip.
2:15
SPEAKER_01: And more and more suppliers were showing materials that can run on existing equipment.
2:21
SPEAKER_01: So there are a few examples I wanted to share with you.
2:24
SPEAKER_01: And one is from Libio Research, and they're a pharmaceutical materials company, which is pharma isn't something that we cover a ton, but there's such a tremendous opportunity there for more sustainable materials and in this case recyclable materials.
2:42
SPEAKER_01: So what they talked about there was OMB or one material blister.
2:48
SPEAKER_01: And it's for it's a drop-in solution that replaces PVC and the aluminum liding for a thermoform blister.
2:56
SPEAKER_01: Instead, it uses PET or polypropylene.
3:00
SPEAKER_01: It's a push-through blister and it can be created on all standard PVC thermoforming lines without any changes.
3:09
SPEAKER_01: And it can be recycled in existing recycling streams, which is a huge opportunity if you imagine all of the blister packs that are used annually to have something that can not only run on your existing equipment, but then be recycled.
3:25
SPEAKER_01: Another one that we saw was from Amcore, and this is more of a food packaging application.
3:33
SPEAKER_01: It's called their Revolution APET barrier film.
3:36
SPEAKER_01: And for this, it's thermoform material for sliced cheese, cracker cuts, and other cheese snacks.
3:44
SPEAKER_01: It's also going to be recycled curbside.
3:47
SPEAKER_01: So typically with these types of applications, you have to have a barrier laminate on top of the PET.
3:54
SPEAKER_01: But with Amforce Revolution technology, the sealant and the polyester, they separate during recycling.
4:01
SPEAKER_01: So if you think about a PET bottle with a label going into the recycling stream or into the recycling process, that label gets washed off and you're left with the PET.
4:14
SPEAKER_01: That's what happens with this material from Amcore.
4:19
SPEAKER_01: And according to them, when I spoke with them, they told me that the features are comparable to a multimaterial tray.
4:27
SPEAKER_01: So it's got the same product protection, same shelf light, same convenience, and it reduces the carbon footprint by 43% and water consumption by 36% when it's compared to a conventional structure.
4:42
SPEAKER_01: But what's really exciting is that it's recyclable and it runs on existing equipment.
4:49
SPEAKER_01: Then another one I wanted to touch on, which when we're talking about not having to give something up, Multivac introduced a multi-seal peel reseal system.
5:03
SPEAKER_01: So it's something that can, it's a new resealable feature that can run on an existing thermoform system.
5:14
SPEAKER_01: So it makes thermoforms and flow reps easy to open, to reseal, to store, so consumers don't have to repack a product once they open it.
5:25
SPEAKER_01: And this innovation was developed with SureTape.
5:29
SPEAKER_01: And so it offers an affordable resilable packaging solution to small and mid-sized producers.
5:35
SPEAKER_01: So to create that PL resale feature, Multivac integrates an unwind system with a slitting unit that applies the resale layer to the top film web through the ceiling die.
5:48
SPEAKER_01: So that moves sustainable packaging.
5:51
SPEAKER_01: All of these innovations move sustainable packaging into reach for some companies that never had access to it before.
5:59
SPEAKER_02: And I think you all of your examples are not trade, like you said earlier, they're not trade-offs.
6:04
SPEAKER_02: The features are comparable, the Amcore features are comparable to existing multimaterial trays, but they with the same product protection, shelf life, all the convenience that's afforded.
6:14
SPEAKER_02: But now it's reducing carbon footprint and water consumption.
6:18
SPEAKER_02: Same thing with Olivio Research.
6:19
SPEAKER_02: Like you said, we don't cover a lot of healthcare ourselves because we have a whole magazine for that.
6:23
SPEAKER_02: Our friend Liz at Healthcare Packaging will be interested to see that.
6:27
SPEAKER_02: So all of these things are indicators, they're canaries in the coal mine of what we expect to see going forward into the next chapter of PACE, the big one in Chicago.
6:36
SPEAKER_02: Now, as long as I've covered this, it was either you had a recyclability component, monomaterial, it was compatible with existing recyclable channels, or you had an extremely high barrier with a whole lot of shelf life and the product you would protect the product in the package for a long period of time, thus that would work against things like food waste.
6:56
SPEAKER_02: But is it the pick one situation, or we're finally seeing again, you're not having to make those trade-offs any longer?
7:03
SPEAKER_01: Some of the innovations I just mentioned, as you can see, they had that extra benefit of providing barrier as well as being recyclable.
7:13
SPEAKER_01: And there were other examples as well for sure, and they're becoming easier for companies, brand owners to incorporate into their packaging process.
7:23
SPEAKER_01: One that hits both on that drop-in idea that we just talked about, as well as the barrier and paperization, which is another huge topic, was Copar Smart Packaging's hyperbarrier paper packaging.
7:39
SPEAKER_01: It's paper packaging that has a heat-sealable nanocomposite coating and that provides a high barrier to moisture, oxygen, and oil.
7:48
SPEAKER_01: And it's food safe, which is extremely important, obviously, in a food packaging application.
7:54
SPEAKER_01: And it replaces multi-layer plastic packaging, but it's recycle ready as opposed to have having to have those multiple film layers for a barrier.
8:05
SPEAKER_01: You can now switch to paper and also have a coating that provides all those barriers and is recyclable, which is like a holy grail to some degree.
8:15
SPEAKER_02: It is plus the added benefit, I think it runs on standard packaging equipment again, that you don't have to retrofit or buy a whole new machine for making these kind of format switches.
8:24
SPEAKER_01: That is correct.
8:25
SPEAKER_01: It does run on the standard existing packaging equipment.
8:29
SPEAKER_01: Another one that was really interesting is when we think about store drop-off PE film that's recyclable, we often think about very small formats, but hood packaging introduced an all polyethylene pet food bag that is up to can carry weights up to 35 pounds.
8:50
SPEAKER_01: So for a pet food bag, that would be a very large bag.
8:53
SPEAKER_01: It's a joint venture with Dow and it's 100% polyethylene and it is store drop-off recyclable.
9:01
SPEAKER_01: And they mentioned that it also is coated with a soft touch.
9:04
SPEAKER_01: So it gives you a nice matte finish, which is really nice for those pet food bags for shelf impact and to enhance the appearance on the store shelf.
9:15
SPEAKER_02: I've recently transitioned from a 10-pound dog to two 30-pound dogs.
9:19
SPEAKER_02: The frequency at which we have 30-pound bags of food and handle them and pour them into smaller portion sizes has gone up significantly in my life.
9:28
SPEAKER_02: So I'll have to be on the lookout for these mono materials.
9:31
SPEAKER_02: I've also been holding myself to the fire to do some more store drop-off whenever applicable.
9:36
SPEAKER_02: And I encourage everybody to do it.
9:38
SPEAKER_02: It's it's easy, it's at the front of every store, but we're seeing more and more momentum in that arena.
9:44
SPEAKER_02: What else did you see in this, like the monomaterial film or the move to monomaterial polyethylene to make things more recyclable?
9:52
SPEAKER_01: I did see there were many examples, but another one that I'd love to share is from Charter Next Generation.
9:59
SPEAKER_01: It was called Green Arrow MDO PE film, so machine direction-oriented polyethylene film.
10:06
SPEAKER_01: And it has a really beautiful matte finish.
10:10
SPEAKER_01: And the film is capable of being recycled.
10:13
SPEAKER_01: And according to Charter Next, MDO allows for enhanced strength, stiffness, heat resistance, thinner gauges, and greater efficiency when you're talking about high-speed converting.
10:26
SPEAKER_01: And it also eliminates the need for secondary coatings or overprint varnishes.
10:31
SPEAKER_01: So this green arrow is especially suited, they said, for food packaging, for pet food packaging, confectionary labels, other applications where brands want to really align up premium positioning with sustainability.
10:48
SPEAKER_01: And it's also store drop-off.
10:50
SPEAKER_02: Good.
10:51
SPEAKER_02: Good.
10:51
SPEAKER_02: Which again, it's easy.
10:53
SPEAKER_02: Just do it.
10:53
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
10:55
SPEAKER_02: Good.
10:55
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
10:56
SPEAKER_02: So we would be remiss in any discussion of sustainability at all, the packaging shows that we've been to in the last two years if we didn't talk about the paperization trend.
11:05
SPEAKER_02: Comes up.
11:06
SPEAKER_02: I would say it has come up every single year over the last three years.
11:10
SPEAKER_02: Would you say it's still something that's aspirational, or is actually you're actually seeing some greater share of use cases that are actually on the shelf and brands are actually using them?
11:21
SPEAKER_02: Well, and what exactly has been holding it back?
11:24
SPEAKER_02: Why hasn't it made the progress that maybe we expected two years ago?
11:28
SPEAKER_01: I would absolutely say that at the last pack expo, we saw paper accelerating and entering into new formats where we haven't seen it before, which is really exciting.
11:40
SPEAKER_01: We saw rigid canisters, we saw cups, which has always been a huge challenge, food service cups, because of the polyethylene coating.
11:50
SPEAKER_01: They're running at full line speed.
11:53
SPEAKER_01: We talked about pharmaceutical blisters.
11:56
SPEAKER_01: And as far as what's been holding it back, I was speaking with Bill Caker at Salinas, and he said that it's always been an industry goal, or not always, but in recent years.
12:07
SPEAKER_01: It's been a goal to replace plastic with paper, but we've seen it advancing much slower than we thought.
12:14
SPEAKER_01: And he told me that the bottleneck wasn't a reluctance with brands to move to paper.
12:22
SPEAKER_01: It was more a barrier, which we talked about in other areas, and then convertibility.
12:27
SPEAKER_01: And those are both finally advancing.
12:31
SPEAKER_01: And Bill, I had a long conversation with him at the Salinas booth, and they are offering echo-friendly coatings and additives for paper.
12:40
SPEAKER_01: And what's interesting about their solution is that the barrier coatings and the additives that they've developed can be applied inline during printing.
12:51
SPEAKER_01: So it's not something that has to be done during the packaging process.
12:56
SPEAKER_01: It can be applied to cup stock board, flexible packaging, flat sheet paper, liners, and there are all kinds of different barrier coating choices, such as flexible applied coatings, water-based pH.
13:11
SPEAKER_01: So you've got polymer coatings.
13:13
SPEAKER_01: And something they pointed out at the show was cup stock, which I just mentioned can be an issue because of the polyethylene coating.
13:21
SPEAKER_01: They have this recyclable, it makes it recycle ready liner that they can add during the conversion process at full mechanical speed.
13:33
SPEAKER_01: So this addresses that convertibility problem.
13:37
SPEAKER_02: Good.
13:37
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, running at speeds is another thing.
13:40
SPEAKER_02: And we'll get into it at all in all sorts of different ways, it manifests in a lot of different ways.
13:44
SPEAKER_02: All of the the many ways that packaging is cascading forward into whether it's smart packaging or new materials.
13:50
SPEAKER_02: The question always remains, but can you do that at X a minute?
13:54
SPEAKER_02: So that is a recurring theme that we've seen as well.
13:57
SPEAKER_02: Being able to switch things out, switch formats, but not reduce throughput in any sense is huge for brand owners and the folks that'll be looking for this new stuff on the show floor.
14:08
SPEAKER_02: Any other thing.
14:10
SPEAKER_01: I can share one more from a company that I have to admit I am not familiar with.
14:16
SPEAKER_01: They're an Italian company and they introduced a USEAL.
14:20
SPEAKER_01: And I can't say that since then I've seen a commercial application, which doesn't mean that it hasn't happened yet, but I haven't seen it.
14:28
SPEAKER_01: They're cardboard canisters and they're a machine, they have a machine that can form, fill, and seal these canisters from a flat blank, which is very important because that means that when they're shipped to the brand owner, they're flat, which saves them from having to move air, basically, if they're they were getting a rigid container already pre-made.
14:53
SPEAKER_01: The canister can be circular, it can be triangular, it can be square, it can hold wet product, dry product, and it runs at speeds from 40 up to more than 300 per minute.
15:06
SPEAKER_01: So it's pretty exciting.
15:08
SPEAKER_01: And I would be remiss if I didn't look into this more and see if we have a commercial application.
15:15
SPEAKER_01: Maybe this year they'll be showing that at PECExpo.
15:18
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it certainly turns some heads because my understanding is it won uh the Technology Excellence Award in food and beverages at the show.
15:25
SPEAKER_02: So that's definitely in a feather of in of the in their cap.
15:28
SPEAKER_02: Okay, in the interest of time, let's keep things moving along.
15:32
SPEAKER_02: Composable packaging not too long ago seemed like it could be a silver bullet, but let's say the last few years it's suffered some setbacks both in public sentiment and in the in the the building of infrastructure to accept it.
15:46
SPEAKER_02: So do you see compostables having a major lane, let's say, in the current cacophony of packaging formats that we see at PacExpo?
15:57
SPEAKER_01: You and I have talked about this before, and I think we've seen a lot of excitement over compostability, as you mentioned, and then brands pulled back from it.
16:06
SPEAKER_01: And I think initially the thought was this is great.
16:10
SPEAKER_01: It's packaging that can disappear when people are done with it.
16:14
SPEAKER_01: But the real value with compostable packaging is what it's used for.
16:19
SPEAKER_01: There are some applications where it's ideal, others that don't make a lot of sense.
16:24
SPEAKER_01: And this is another example we've used over and over ever since I heard it at a conference from BPI.
16:31
SPEAKER_01: They said that compostable packaging is like a tortilla chip delivering salsa to your mouth.
16:38
SPEAKER_01: So what we want with compostable packaging is we want it to be used for a product such as food, where the food residue then delivers something to that compost.
16:50
SPEAKER_01: So it's providing a benefit and adding up a product that composters really want.
16:56
SPEAKER_01: And so the value is not replacing something that's recyclable already, but replacing something that was not, and perhaps because of the food residue.
17:07
SPEAKER_01: So I'll just share one example where that really stuck out at PAC Expo, where we had a really ideal application, and that was Pro Ampac's ButterFresh.
17:18
SPEAKER_01: Right now there's no recyclable option for butter wrap, if you think about a stick of butter because of the contamination.
17:26
SPEAKER_01: So butter wraps have always been destined for landfill.
17:31
SPEAKER_01: But Pro Ampack has made it a home compostable material.
17:35
SPEAKER_01: So it's wax-free, PFAS-free, and it has grease resistance and deadfold.
17:42
SPEAKER_01: So it's got all the features required for butter packaging, but it is compostable.
17:48
SPEAKER_01: And the food contamination doesn't compromise compostability as we talked about, which is why it fits perfectly.
17:56
SPEAKER_01: So I'll just leave you with that.
17:59
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it comports very closely with I heard from Mars, amongst several other brand owners and stakeholders at Interpack this past year, actually in May.
18:08
SPEAKER_02: And that was their takeaway on it was that compostables have lanes and they have, they're actually probably the ideal package for certain applications, but it's very application specific.
18:20
SPEAKER_02: It compostables aren't quite there yet in terms of being the pan-industrial panacea, but they're certainly they have their lane.
18:28
SPEAKER_02: And I think getting to know what those perfect applications are and where they work best and using that is going to be their path forward.
18:35
SPEAKER_02: So there you have it from Ann-Marie Mohan, the person in the know when it comes to all things PACE sustainability and materials.
18:43
SPEAKER_02: The big three brand owners aren't seeing as much for trade-offs anymore.
18:47
SPEAKER_02: They can now run their their mono material formats on existing equipment.
18:52
SPEAKER_02: It's not uh or and, it's a and but kind of situation.
18:56
SPEAKER_02: Paperization is happening, and again, no trade-offs necessary.
19:00
SPEAKER_02: Paperization is happening where it's running on equipment that is at speed and equipment that doesn't require a whole lot in terms of retrofits.
19:09
SPEAKER_02: Maybe a little bit of draw seal dwell time changes, maybe a little temperature on the draw seals for some of those flexible packaging situations, but not much.
19:17
SPEAKER_02: The trade-offs aren't there.
19:18
SPEAKER_02: And then finally, compostability.
19:19
SPEAKER_02: As much of a black eye as it may have gotten recently, with brands somewhat turning away.
19:24
SPEAKER_02: There's certainly still lanes for it.
19:26
SPEAKER_02: There's certainly still perfect applications where, in fact, it is the correct package to use.
19:31
SPEAKER_02: So we're up against time.
19:33
SPEAKER_02: Give me one thing that you would tell somebody who's building out their Chicago schedule based on all that you've seen and what we expect going forward going into October.
19:42
SPEAKER_01: I'll give you a couple very quick things.
19:45
SPEAKER_01: So if I were going, I am going, but if I am going as someone who's interested in finding new equipment or materials, bring questions rather than just a list of booths.
19:57
SPEAKER_01: Ask these equipment suppliers what changes you might have to make on your line or ask the material suppliers and ask equipment suppliers if their equipment can accommodate new materials.
20:10
SPEAKER_01: Ask who certified a recycling claim.
20:13
SPEAKER_01: Those questions will tell you more in five minutes than any brochure you're going to get.
20:18
SPEAKER_02: Good.
20:19
SPEAKER_02: I think there's a whole lot that we tried to get to, but we couldn't condense it down into something that would be audience friendly.
20:25
SPEAKER_02: So there's a whole lot more.
20:26
SPEAKER_02: And there's a whole lot more in packagingworld.com or excuse me, packworld.com that you can find.
20:31
SPEAKER_02: You've got more notes out there, I'm sure, right?
20:34
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
20:35
SPEAKER_01: Although I'll tell you the thing that I end up writing about the most is whatever I stumble onto on the way to something else at the show.
20:44
SPEAKER_01: It's just, it's like a treasure hunt, like they talk about in Costco.
20:47
SPEAKER_01: It's a treasure hunt.
20:49
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I agree.
20:50
SPEAKER_02: And we even internally have a name for that.
20:51
SPEAKER_02: We call that serendipity.
20:53
SPEAKER_02: And serendipity and serendipitous meetings from walking well being late to an appointment at a certain booth halfway across the hall actually accounts for a good chunk of our reporting.
21:04
SPEAKER_02: So we're going to do this again on another corner of the show in the next few weeks leading into Pac Expo.
21:08
SPEAKER_02: Looking forward to talking to you again about the next as we turn the page to the next major pillar of Pac Expo packaging, new materials, and machinery.
21:17
SPEAKER_02: So we'll talk to you soon, Henry.
21:21
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to Through the Line Packaging and Processing.
21:25
SPEAKER_00: You can listen to more episodes on all streaming platforms.
21:28
SPEAKER_00: Be sure to visit us at packworld.com, profoodworld.com, and healthcarepackaging.com for more packaging and processing news.
21:37
SPEAKER_00: This podcast was edited by Bree Guns.