Gabriel Magdaleno, Director of Strategic Product Management and Marketing at Masterpress, has published an enlightening article on Sustainable Packaging News on the sustainable outlook for the decorative packaging industry.

Gabriel Magdaleno’s article “Navigating Sustainability Challenges – the Packaging Industry’s Transformative Journey”, published this summer by Sustainable Packaging News, begins with the following observation: “ The decorative packaging industry is undergoing a significant transformation, driven by growing environmental awareness and increased consumer demand for sustainable solutions. While companies are increasingly adopting a variety of packaging materials, such as paper, cardboard, glass and plant-based materials, plastic continues to play a dominant and important role.”

With this in mind, the industry has a number of options for reducing the impact of plastic use: reducing the quantity used, reducing weight, etc. According to Gabriel Magdaleno, the most effective solution is to improve the recyclability of plastic: “ By increasing recyclability, we can use more post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic in new packaging for consumer products. This helps reduce the demand for virgin plastic and helps close the recycling loop “.

But this imperative remains hampered for the time being by a persistent price difference between virgin and recycled plastic. On this point, however, Gabriel Magdaleno is optimistic: “ the cost difference between recycled and virgin plastic is gradually diminishing as technology advances, economies of scale improve and environmental regulations encourage the use of recycled materials ”.
However, there is still one stumbling block: to accelerate the reduction of this difference, the European industry needs to rely on economies of scale, which are not fully in play given that “ Europe recycles less than 70% of its plastic ”. Which leads Gabriel Magdaleno to draw this singular perspective: “ shouldn’t we also be open to accepting PCR plastic from other parts of the world if local supply is insufficient? ”. A prospect that can only unfold on one condition: that of “ developing certification standards and well-established processes for verifying PCR in order to increase its use in industry ”.

Read the full article on Sustainable Packaging News

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