This article first appeared in the February 2025 issue of ProPack.pro, authored by the Close the Loop’s Jessica O’Donnell

2024 was a transformative year for Close the Loop, as it underwent a rebrand mid-year to mark the continued integration of its business units across Australia, the US, South Africa, and Europe.

As the largest recycler of printer consumables, our multi-brand collection program for printer cartridges in Europe celebrated its one-year anniversary, with more than 2.5 million products recovered in its first year – a huge achievement that aligns well with the success of our other multi-brand programs in Australia and the US.

In the tech space, we further solidified our position as a key certified refurbish partner for HP and were recognised this year with the success of the HP Renew Solutions program.

In the packaging space, shifts towards sustainable packaging design (particularly in Australia) aligned well with our ethos and the strengths of our combined company expertise, although finding food-grade recycled content for flexible packaging continues to be a challenge that we’re looking to further develop for clients this year.

In 2025, our global focus will be on our premise of “collecting today, creating tomorrow”. Close the Loop is focused on further development of product and material reuse, including tech refurbishment and recycled content products and packaging of high value, to ensure the pull-through effect required for a robust circular economy. Continued growth in the American market will be a key priority for the business moving forward, with huge potential and appetite for our offering still to be tapped into.

In Australia, our main priorities for 2025 will be on collection and recycling and packaging regulation. We recently announced the development of a new soft plastics recycling facility in NSW to further expand our capacity for tackling this difficult material and turning into our high-performance asphalt improvement additive TonerPlas. We’re also focused on traceability in 2025 and working to integrate new systems into our business for carbon accounting and for the traceability of recycled materials from their point of generation through to what product they end up in.

We will also be working alongside our packaging clients to help them transition towards more recycle-ready packaging, in-line with upcoming packaging design regulations proposed by the Federal Government. A key sustainability commitment that we have also made for 2025 is the development of an industry-leading recycled content traceability program in partnership with Recity, GS1, and the Victorian government, while also integrating carbon accounting into our packaging business to provide reporting and data to our clients.

We believe this year is going to be a delicate balancing act between product performance and protection, and the reduction of both packaging and food waste, all while considering company production efficiencies and requirements – but we’re all about creating something new that works to tick as many boxes as possible. We think commercial packaging and ‘back of house’ waste will start to become more of a focus in discussions around sustainability, too.

For businesses looking to be more sustainable this year, we believe they should be looking at the full picture to find the best way forward – packaging and product lifecycles need to be investigated to determine what is the most sustainable solution. Carbon footprint has to be accounted for, in addition to end-of-life recovery and waste. Brands also shouldn’t let perfect be the enemy of good – sometimes reducing packaging material use or removing unnecessary components can be a cost- effective and easy implementation to begin the journey.

In 2025, we anticipate demand for paper solutions and mono-materials will continue to grow, while it seems calls for polymer- based compostable packaging may be declining. Chemicals of concern such as PFAS are also a big consideration in fibre packaging in particular, and movements to phase these out of the packaging system is a positive step that will continue to gain momentum next year. Recycled content and a focus on locally sourced products will be a big selling point for businesses that can come up with solutions.

The challenges will be the limitations of existing packing equipment that brands have in their arsenal, and how far we’re able to change the materials that need to run through these machines – into other mono-materials before product loss, reduced running speeds, and wastage on the line outweigh the benefits of the packaging itself being more recycle-ready.

Again, the need for traceable, quality recycled content sources for food-grade products will be one of the largest challenges for packaging manufacturers and suppliers in the coming few years. Opportunities are for those nimble enough, or those who have enough investment behind them, to capitalise on the ever-increasing consumer demand for waste reduction and more producer responsibility.