At a time when Australian industry is accelerating efforts toward circular design and intelligent packaging systems, a showcase of Europe’s cutting-edge solutions offers a valuable perspective on where global innovation is heading.
The Best Packaging Awards 2025, presented in Milan during IPACK-IMA, spotlighted the top advancements from Italy’s packaging sector – offering sustainability-focused inspiration with potential relevance for local manufacturers and brand owners.
Promoted by the Italian Packaging Institute and supported by CONAI (Italy’s National Packaging Consortium) the awards recognise excellence in technology, sustainability, design and functionality. The winning entries reflect an industry investing in digitalisation, circular materials, consumer engagement and scalable solutions – priorities shared across markets including Australia.
Technology leads the charge
In the Technology category, Goglio’s fres-co System+ took honours for creating an integrated digital ecosystem combining materials, machinery and data on a flexible packaging line to optimise processes and minimise waste – pointing to a future of connected, efficient packaging lines.
GranTerre and Istituto Stampa’s Snack&Vai impressed with a cold-seal paper-based flowpack system reducing resource use and enhancing recyclability in primary and secondary (multi-packs) food packaging. The plain paper is coated with a cold-seal lacquer applied in line, enabling the elimination of plastic in this application.
Meanwhile, Loacker’s Smartflexpack eliminates adhesive labels through direct-to-pack printing with sustainable inks and introduces smart technologies like digital twin simulation to optimise the printing process. The use of computer vision technology enables the validation of printed information.
Smilesys and MustangPack’s T-Bag innovation brought together paper packaging and pandemic-era mask production tech to halve raw material usage in a heat-sealable pre-formed paper bag for fresh produce. The packaging is made on equipment that once produced Covid masks, capable of making individual or ribbon-style pouches. T-Bag features large printable surfaces on the inside and outside, a viewing window, and a stable base.
In luxury packaging, Taghleef Industries and Plastigraf Trevigiana developed the Luxury Cosmetic Box using over 90 per cent renewable materials, balancing sustainability and premium appeal. The rigid box is made of recycled cardboard, externally coated with a laminate comprising paper and a metallic BOPLA film, and finished with UV offset printing.
Tiber Pack’s Nicetuck offers a smart mechanical cartoning system that dispenses with glue entirely – reducing energy and material use while maintaining speed and efficiency. The Nicetuck patent-pending design is based on the geometry of a wrap-around die-cut, featuring special cuts and scoring that allow it to close automatically without the need for glues, adhesives or additional cutting surfaces.
Special recognition for design and environment
Two standout entries received special awards. The Quality Design Special Award went to Scudo by Brafim Mecplast, a 3D protective packaging system made from recycled cardboard that maximises shock absorption and recyclability. The technology involves overlapping layers of 3D cardboard to achieve varying thicknesses and shapes. In addition to eliminating the risk of breakage and reducing the environmental impact associated with excess packaging, the use of cardboard as the sole raw material simplifies recycling and extends the material’s life cycle.
Gruppo Happy (Coopbox) and Unicoop Firenze won the Environment Special Award for Direct, a redesigned monomaterial extruded expanded polystyrene tray that improves food preservation while cutting environmental impact by more than a third. The extrusion process used results in a composite mono-material honeycomb structure, with closed cells on the outside and open cells on the inside. The tray absorbs the exudate emitted by food without the use of an absorbent pad, thus simplifying the sorting and recycling process.
Trends defining the future of packaging
The 2025 award winners reflect five core trends shaping the packaging sector:
1) Sustainability as strategy, with rising use of compostable, monomaterial and recycled inputs.
2) Tech-driven eco solutions, including smart automation, direct printing and digitised systems.
3) User-centric functionality, featuring designs that improve convenience, reduce waste, and enhance disposal.
4) Premium storytelling, merging aesthetic appeal with environmental messaging in luxury formats.
5) Industrial readiness, with solutions tailored for scalable roll-out across categories and geographies.
The awards underscore Italy’s role as a hotbed of packaging innovation, with relevance for the global industry. For Australian businesses seeking to stay competitive, reduce environmental impact, and build smarter systems, these solutions offer not just ideas—but blueprints for action.
