This article first appeared in the February 2025 issue of ProPack.pro, authored by Detmold Group’s Keith Bishop
The packaging landscape is in a state of evolution. The industry will need to balance cost effectiveness, sustainability, and compliance, with the drive for lower consumer costs impacting the packaging supply chain. This may result in customer-driven trade-offs between packaging performance, raw materials, or product claims and costs.
State legislative requirements are also changing, affecting end- and beginning- of-life packaging and environmental claims, with consumers seeking increased transparency around traceability while making more sustainable choices.
The packaging industry needs to work together to help governments and regulators develop and implement environmental packaging policy and regulations which are consistent and workable across jurisdictions, to drive responsible packaging practices while avoiding unreasonable increases in compliance costs, adding to cost of living pressures.
In addition, greenwashing is still prevalent in some parts of the food service packaging market, and companies need to partner with suppliers to legitimise claims. We are hoping to see more uniform decision- making regarding federal legislation to minimise state compliance confusion.
However, complying with federal and state-based legislation regarding greenwashing and single-use plastics will be challenging for some industry participants, along with offsetting rising input costs and industry ‘free-riders’ operating outside of the NEPM/APCO co-regulatory arrangements. Greater sustainability oversight and accountability is essential, including investment in compliance or certification claims, as extended producer responsibility laws gain traction in the future.
In 2025, we expect more functional and user-friendly packaging designs, enhancing aesthetics, and an improved unboxing/brand experience. The debate on eco-modulated fees and their application will continue.
There will be a greater focus on health and wellbeing, including eliminating chemicals of concern such as PFAS, compliance with food-safe quality regulations, and addressing CSR issues such as worker safety standards and complying with anti-modern slavery regulations throughout the supply chain.
The shift towards sustainable material choices will persist, with circular packaging options including reusable, recyclable, and compostable options, to minimise waste and align with legislation. Technologies like AI will optimise packaging processes from design and material selection to logistics, improving efficiency, reducing costs, and making advanced packaging more accessible.
As a result, in 2025, innovation will continue to be essential, particularly around the rapidly growing range of paper-based packaging raw material technologies, compositions and performance, while designing products to meet customer and brand expectations.
Companies and packaging suppliers need to understand regulatory compliance and what customers want – including high-quality products and accurate sustainability information, while designing for useability and end-of-life, incorporating new technologies, certifications and testing processes to create future-proof, sustainable products.
The Detmold Group has invested heavily in this space with the 2024 expansion of our dedicated in-house packaging design and R&D lab, LaunchPad, which has increased our service offerings and customer base, including directly offering re-pulpability and other testing services to third parties and non-packaging sales customers.
In 2024, Detmold Group also launched its 2025-2050 Sustainability Goals featuring 15 targets across climate, nature, circularity, and governance. Supporting this, we completed our first Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) environmental performance review and international solar project in Heshan, China, with 956 solar panels generating more than 574 MW annually.
We also expanded globally, strengthening our presence in North America with two new US sales offices and completed a European acquisition. In addition, we launched more than 250 products, focusing on innovative coatings and single-use plastic ban-compliant items.
2024 was a strong year for the group in terms of industry recognition, earning awards including the Full Framework Reporting Award at the 2024 APCO Awards, the APPMA Packaging Design Innovation Award, and the Flynn Group’s Product Excellence Award. We were also recognised by the SA Business Chamber for gender pay parity and equality in manufacturing, and as an Employer of Choice in the Australian Business Awards for the seventh year.
Our key priorities for 2025 are sustainability and design innovation. This includes reducing emissions in line with key customers within globally accepted timeframes, continuing to collaborate with suppliers to prevent deforestation in our supply chain, and enhancing participation in a circular economy. We are improving material optimisation, increasing use of sustainably sourced materials, reducing fossil fuel-based plastics, and introducing more recyclable and compostable packaging solutions.
Our 2025-2050 Sustainability Goals include sourcing more forest-certified fibre, increasing recyclable content in products, maximising landfill diversion, sourcing more renewable electricity and setting greater emissions reduction targets; and continued investment in governance processes to drive accountability, including CDP disclosure and Group ISO 14001 certification.
