Smithers’ latest white paper, 5 Key Trends Shaping the Packaging Industry (2025), highlights the forces driving change across the global packaging landscape. It identifies five interlinked themes – sustainability, economics, regulation, performance, and circularity – that are reshaping how packaging is designed, manufactured, and used.
In a sector facing rising consumer expectations, regulatory pressures, and economic headwinds, the report underscores that packaging must deliver both environmental and commercial value. The five trends identified by report author Ciaran Little, VP, Global Consulting at Smithers, outline where the greatest shifts are occurring and how businesses are responding.
1. CPG sustainability strategies: holistic and plural
Consumer packaged goods companies are broadening their approach to sustainability. Instead of a single pathway, they are deploying multiple strategies depending on the product and market. Nestlé, for instance, is working with more than a dozen approaches across its portfolio. For packaging suppliers, this means providing not only materials and solutions, but also data-driven insights into trade-offs such as recyclability versus carbon footprint.
2. Economic pressures and inflation
Slower consumer spending and ongoing inflation are putting pressure on packaging value chains. With households more price-sensitive, sustainable packaging must demonstrate commercial as well as environmental value. This shifts the emphasis to solutions that deliver long-term cost efficiency, operational savings, and brand reputation benefits, rather than being seen purely as an environmental cost.
3. Performance parity and cost competitiveness
Sustainable packaging will only achieve mainstream adoption if it performs as well as, or better than, existing formats – at a comparable cost. Companies are responding by optimising supply chains, scaling production, and investing in lifecycle analysis to substantiate environmental claims and avoid accusations of greenwashing.
4. Expanded and diversified EPR
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes are proliferating globally, but with fragmented rules and expectations across regions. In the US, implementation is happening state by state, while in Asia-Pacific programmes are still emerging. This complexity creates challenges for multinational brands but also provides opportunities to pilot new approaches and develop more agile, localised strategies.
5. Recyclability and circularity
The concept of recyclability is becoming more nuanced. Distinctions between “technically recyclable” and “recyclable at scale” highlight the importance of infrastructure, economics, and contamination issues. To achieve genuine circularity, alignment is needed across regulation, recycled content mandates, and consumer education, alongside investment in both mechanical and chemical recycling. Industry collaboration is already delivering results – for example, Cadbury in Australia introduced wrappers with 50% certified circular plastic, developed with Amcor and ExxonMobil.
The overarching message of the Smithers analysis is clear: packaging companies must adapt to a more complex, data-driven environment where sustainability, performance, economics, and compliance intersect. Success will depend on collaboration, innovation, and the ability to prove value across the entire lifecycle.
This summary is published by PKN with permission from Smithers. The full white paper, 5 Key Trends Shaping the Packaging Industry, can be downloaded from Smithers website here.
