Opportunities and challenges--various trends are intertwined, and the packaging industry landscape is being reshaped
author: Annie
2025-06-27
The packaging industry is at the forefront of a profound transformation, with intertwined trends reshaping the industry landscape. Companies face both challenges and opportunities as they optimize costs, adapt to changing regulations, and meet sustainability commitments. John Blake, senior director of analytics at Gartner, shares how to understand and respond to these changes to remain competitive and achieve long-term success.
Trends Impacting the Packaging Industry
Intertwined Impacts
Industry trends do not exist in isolation, as regulations, cost optimization, and data management are increasingly interconnected and interdependent. In 2025, Oregon will be the first state in the United States to implement Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for packaging, with Colorado and California expected to follow in 2026 and 2027. This means that decisions made in one area may have significant impacts in other areas. For example, packaging regulations may impose fees on certain types of packaging while also encouraging the use of less packaging, which ultimately results in cost savings.
In addition, regulations require companies to strengthen the management of packaging specification data, which not only helps with compliance, but also achieves cost control through optimized procurement and supply chain management. Therefore, supply chain managers need to have a holistic view to ensure that all parties are working together and avoid focusing on only one aspect of the problem.
01 Cost Optimization and Packaging Reduction
Sustainable packaging initiatives are driving transparency at the production and consumption ends, enabling companies to accelerate cost optimization with the help of data analysis and waste management strategies. Nearly 88% of Gartner's 2024 Global Supply Chain Top 50 companies have set goals related to packaging waste, indicating that the industry is actively addressing issues such as resource management, regulatory requirements and environmental impact. However, there are still challenges in practice, and many companies are adjusting their previously voluntary sustainability goal.
The key to effectively reducing packaging waste lies in optimizing design. After all, 80% of the environmental impact of a product is determined at the design stage. Therefore, corporate managers should develop strategies that meet compliance requirements and incorporate waste reduction and resource optimization into core business decisions.
By intervening in the product design stage, optimizing material use and investment, and implementing effective governance mechanisms, companies can reduce unnecessary packaging waste, thereby achieving cost savings and improving the sustainability and efficiency of overall packaging.
02 Reassessment of Sustainable Packaging Goals and Global Regulatory Impacts
With the arrival of 2025, many companies are reassessing their sustainable packaging commitments to meet technical and financial challenges. This re-examination is not only a reasonable adjustment of cost and feasibility, but also an adaptation to changing regulatory requirements.
Gartner predicts that by 2028, 75% of companies will abandon their voluntary sustainable packaging goals and adjust their strategies to meet legislative requirements. This shows that the impact of regulations on sustainable packaging is deepening.
The extended producer responsibility system (EPR) has rapidly expanded from Europe to North America, Asia Pacific and other regions, requiring companies to be responsible for the disposal of their packaging waste. Companies need to pay for the packaging they sell and take measures to reduce packaging use and increase the recyclability of packaging. Some regions even impose restrictions or bans on specific packaging types.
As regulatory requirements increase, many companies are gradually showing their shortcomings in packaging specification data management. In order to better meet regulatory requirements and reduce compliance risks, more and more companies are starting to use EPR compliance management software to simplify the data reporting process for sustainable packaging and avoid potential financial risks.
03 Upgrade of packaging data management
Accurate specification data is the key to compliance management. However, with the advancement of global sustainable regulations, many companies have found that their existing data management systems have defects, such as poor data quality, insufficient integrity, and lack of accuracy. Therefore, supply chain technology leaders and CIOs are actively seeking solutions to meet increasingly stringent regulatory requirements.
At present, many companies still rely on traditional manual data management methods, such as spreadsheets and manual supplier entry, which not only consumes resources, but also may lead to cost overruns and compliance risks. Because data management tools have long been not prioritized and fully invested, it is difficult for companies to use machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) to optimize key businesses such as product development, supply chain management, and regulatory compliance prediction.
In order to promote the upgrade of data management systems, companies should use the compliance requirements of packaging regulations to show key stakeholders the risks brought by the current data management methods, and collaborate with compliance, finance, risk management and R&D teams to ensure data integrity and accuracy to improve overall operational efficiency.
04 Investment upgrade of label and packaging design management
For a long time, label and packaging design management has not received enough attention and funding. However, with the increase in regulatory requirements and the acceleration of product launch cycles, this area is gradually ushering in more investment.
Digital label and packaging content management has become an industry trend. Through the empowerment of technologies such as cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI), companies can improve traceability, reduce errors and improve cost-effectiveness. This trend is particularly important in the manufacturing and life science industries, as these industries have extremely strict requirements for data management and regulatory compliance.
In order to promote the upgrade of label and packaging management systems, companies should make full use of customer needs, regulatory requirements and data requirements for operational management, show key decision makers the compliance risks and brand reputation damage caused by traditional management methods, and find opportunities to optimize label and packaging design through data analysis to improve efficiency, reduce costs and improve quality.
Looking forward to 2030 Welcome to the future of the packaging industry
2025 may become an important turning point for the packaging industry. With the accelerated implementation of global packaging regulations, the design, use and recycling of packaging will undergo profound changes. At the same time, the development of technologies such as software development, cloud computing, machine learning and artificial intelligence will completely revolutionize the tools and management methods of the packaging industry.
Business managers need to look at these trends from a holistic perspective and consider their combined impact to formulate investment strategies, talent training programs and medium- and long-term packaging development strategies that adapt to future development in order to gain a favorable position in the highly competitive market environment.
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