INNOVATION to evaluate true innovations in three dimensions: by their hand-feel, the ability to easily open package and access and use a product, to gauge the quality of a package by performing a first-hand forensic analysis of a package’s components. You cannot get that by looking at pictures and more importantly, you don’t get the immediate interaction and spirited discussion as you do by hosting a face-to-face gathering of industry professionals from around the world, sitting together for four days, sharing insights, challenging assumptions, and being able to look one another in the eye and come to a consensus. That cannot happen by judging via email. It’s not fair to the entries and efforts of those who’ve toiled oftentimes for years to bring a significant and meaningful packaging solution to commercialisation.
We’re both familiar with the macro trends and pressures that have been pushing innovation over recent years. Peering just over the horizon, are there any new drivers of packaging R&D you expect to emerge? I can point to two specific areas. Certainly, the role that packaging does, and will continue to play in the elimination of food waste is a global challenge, but one that also has regional implications. Think about it like this: food waste means two very different things depending on if one lives, for instance in Paris’ wealthy department of Hauts-de-Seine, or in Bahr el Ghazal, one of the poorest areas of South Sudan in east Africa. We are seeing not just package innovations, but true packaging solutions that are helping people preserve, or simply gain access to, the food, drink, and medicines they need, as well as help prevent waste once they have it in their possession. In this context, I am seeing less emphasis on packaging disruptions, meaning being different for difference sake, and much more emphasis being placed on packaging solutions – those which consumers see as being different, but more importantly, they understand what that difference means to making their life easier, better, safer, healthier. The two ‘horizon’ trends I, as well as the Mintel Global Packaging Team see, are the challenges of ocean plastics and e-commerce packaging. I truly believe many in our industry are missing the bigger picture and greater opportunities associated with ocean plastics. Rather than focusing on novelty, limited edition bottles made from 10 per cent recovered ocean plastics, our future-forward efforts and resources should be focusing on how to divert them from getting there in the first place. For the foreseeable future, that means a much greater emphasis and consumer education campaigns about recovery and recycling. The greater opportunity I spoke of is in how we use the attention being paid to ocean plastics as a catalyst to engage consumers in a bigger conversation about all types of packaging waste and the positive role packaging plays in our lives today and in the future – to include plastics. Solutions with regard to e-commerce packaging are proving to be as challenging today as were our first efforts around defining sustainable packaging in the early 2000s. Just as we learned then that there is no such thing as ‘the
most sustainable package’, we are learning today there are many areas of focus that can lead to a more efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally responsible e-commerce packaging solutions that still reflect the equity of a brand that consumers expect.
What do you regard as the most disruptive areas of new packaging technology that will meet these new demands? I’ll refer back to my earlier comment, and firm belief, that we must break out of the notion of disruptive packaging innovation and begin to think in terms of product and solutions. Ask ‘why are we developing this product, and how can the product and package work together to make consumers’ lives easier, more convenient, safer, healthier’. Getting to these solutions means we must consider all both ‘traditional’ and ‘next-generation’ materials, and sourcing, distribution, design, converting, retailing, and recovery and reuse options. Nothing is off the table.
Are there any recent innovations in packaging formats or materials that strike you as particularly impressive or important? I believe the quest to develop a truly recyclable barrier flexible packaging material is critical. I’ve seen a few early technologies from the Asia-Pacific region that are great strides forward. I believe that materials suppliers, package converters, and brand owners must take greater responsibility for consumer education efforts in context with the environmental responsibility of packaging. We must stop saying that a material is ‘compostable’ when it is really only industrial compostable, not home compostable. We help consumers gain a greater understanding of what is recyclable and exactly how to recycle. I believe the How2Recycle label is a great first step toward that, and I would mention that the How2Recycle label earned a DowDuPont Award in 2017.
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