As an important signpost for the European packaging industry, FACHPACK, which will take place from 28 to 30 September, naturally also aims to depict trends that move the industry.
In order to obtain empirically sound results, the "FACHPACK Trend Radar" was developed for the second time this year in cooperation with VEND Consulting. The resulting white paper once again provides an exciting overview of packaging trends in the near future and will be available to interested parties for download at www.packaging-360.com/trendradar2021 from 23.07.2021.
"We take our FACHPACK motto 'We make the future' literally and want to offer the industry real added value in terms of trends as well. That's why we're pleased to once again be able to show our community with the FACHPACK Trend Radar 2021 which industry trends are expected to become widespread in the next three to five years," explains Phillip Blass, Director FACHPACK, NürnbergMesse.
FACHPACK Trend Radar 2021: The study design
To obtain the results, a total of 21 selected trends were evaluated by representatives and experts of the packaging industry via an online questionnaire with regard to: the attractiveness of the individual trends for the packaging industry, the extent of change or relevance of the trends for the packaging industry and the time horizon when the individual trend will be suitable for the masses.
The online questionnaire was completed in spring 2021 by 108 packaging experts and industry insiders, the majority of whom hold managerial positions. Approximately 80% of the participants are part of a large company with 1000 or more employees or a medium-sized company with 50 to 1000 employees.
Of the respondents, almost one-third work in the packaging materials and supplies sector, while about 10 % are active in the segments of services for the packaging industry, packaging printing and finishing, and packaging machinery. The rest of the study participants come from packaging-related sectors, such as logistics, the food industry, associations, research or consulting.
FACHPACK Trend Radar 2021: The top three trends
After evaluating the collected data, it can be summarised that the three upcoming top trends in the packaging industry are all sustainability trends. The first top trend is the increase in the use of recycled materials. The recycling of plastic waste and the use of plastic recyclates in new products conserve primary raw materials. Compared to production from crude oil, CO2 emissions can thus be significantly reduced.
The second top trend is the use of monomaterials for better separability. In the recycling process, a major challenge is finally to separate materials from each other. According to the Federal Environment Agency, a material must consist of at least 95% of one main material to be treated as a mono-material. Packaging made of a mix of different types of plastic can also be recycled, but the process is much more extensive and the recyclate has inferior properties compared to mono-materials.
The respondents see the third top trend in resource-saving packaging. When using such packaging, significantly fewer primary resources are used due to material savings, which provides significant added value in terms of the sustainability of the packaging. This can be implemented well with the help of new production processes, for example. However, a declared goal is to ensure that the functionality of the packaging is maintained. As a result of increased material efficiency in plastic packaging, for example, material use has been reduced by a quarter over 25 years, which corresponds to a CO2 saving of 2.6 million tonnes.
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