Sustainability in the packaging sector has shifted from being an aspirational idea to becoming a strategic driver of competitiveness. Companies can no longer just “swap a material” or add a green label: consumers demand consistency, regulators insist on compliance, and the market punishes solutions that don’t perform under real conditions.
Moving towards a sustainable packaging industry means integrating circularity principles into design, ensuring that packaging is recyclable within current systems, while simultaneously maintaining optimal levels of quality, safety, and efficiency. It is a profound transformation that requires a holistic vision, applied innovation, and cross-functional collaboration across the entire value chain.
At Barcelona Packaging Hub, we have analyzed the most significant challenges facing the sector. These challenges are not solely technical or material; they also encompass aspects of governance, measurement, and industrial scalability. Based on our practical experience, we have identified approaches that allow them to be addressed with both realism and rigor.
Key challenges for a sustainable packaging industry
1. Eco-design driven by machinery innovation
Eco-design is not just a matter of materials: every reduction in weight or elimination of layers requires precise engineering solutions. To meet customer demands, machinery manufacturers must develop equipment capable of producing more sustainable packaging without compromising its primary functions: protecting the product, ensuring food or pharmaceutical safety, and maintaining mechanical strength throughout the packaging’s entire lifecycle.
Thanks to technological advances, modern machines allow for precise adjustment of layer distribution, optimization of thickness, and control of critical parameters such as sealing and barriers against moisture and light. Prototypes are tested directly on-site through resistance, transport, and sealing trials under real conditions, ensuring that every innovation in eco-design is both functional and reliable.
Ultimately, the success of eco-design depends not only on creativity in materials but also on the machinery’s ability to turn those ideas into real, functional, and sustainable packaging.
2. Compatibility with real-world recycling streams
Many packages are marketed as recyclable, but in practice, they don’t always get recycled because they don’t fit into the collection and sorting systems available in each market. To ensure true recyclability, machinery manufacturers develop equipment capable of detecting, separating, and processing specific materials under industrial conditions, adjusting parameters to ensure that even single-material films perform correctly within real-world recycling streams.
The success of these sustainable packages depends not only on their composition but also on testing and validating their recyclability from the design phase, in collaboration with recyclers and logistics operators, using on-site trials that simulate real recycling conditions. In this way, machinery and manufacturing processes become essential allies in turning sustainable ideas into solutions that are actually recyclable, preventing unnecessary waste.
3. Reliable and comparable data for decision-making
The packaging sector faces a significant lack of consistency in the data guiding sustainability decisions. While some companies use life cycle analyses (LCAs) with limited scope, others rely on internal metrics or supplier claims that are not always comparable. This fragmentation creates confusion and opens the door to greenwashing.
For a sustainable industry to be truly credible, it is essential to establish common and verifiable metrics. Here, machinery and on-site testing play a key role: real production data, performance trials, and prototypes tested on the line allow theoretical metrics to be compared with the actual functionality and efficiency of the packaging. This way, LCA indicators, energy consumption, water usage, and waste generation are integrated with OEE and quality control parameters, providing a comprehensive and reliable view of each solution.
Only with objective data obtained under real manufacturing conditions is it possible to make packaging decisions that create tangible sustainable value, avoiding solutions that, however well-intentioned, don’t work in practice.
4. Scaling pilot projects without losing performance
In recent years, many companies have developed pilot projects using alternative materials that have shown good results during testing phases. However, when trying to scale these innovations to an industrial level, problems multiply: reduced performance, unplanned downtime, increased waste, and challenges in quality control.
Sustainability cannot progress if sustainable packaging is not viable on the production floor. One of the major challenges, therefore, is how to scale without losing OEE or compromising the safety and appearance of the packaging. The Hub’s experience shows that the solution lies in designing pilots with scalability in mind from the start: testing on real production lines, measuring the effects on changeover times, adjusting machinery parameters, and validating compatibility with packaging and distribution processes. Only what works on the production floor has a future in the market.
5. Assessing the total cost of ownership (TCO)
The price per kilogram of material has traditionally been the most used criterion for making packaging decisions. However, in the context of sustainability, this approach is insufficient and can even be misleading. A seemingly cheaper material may incur hidden costs in the form of higher energy consumption, the need for machinery modifications, increased waste, or additional logistical expenses.
Therefore, the evaluation must go beyond price and consider the total cost of ownership (TCO). This approach allows for a comprehensive analysis of the impact of a packaging solution on production processes, from the CAPEX required to adapt equipment to the OPEX associated with energy consumption or transportation. Companies that apply TCO make more resilient decisions, less vulnerable to price fluctuations or raw material availability, resulting in greater long-term stability and competitiveness.
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A pragmatic approach to a sustainable industry
At Barcelona Packaging Hub, we believe that the path to a sustainable packaging industry is built on pragmatism and technical rigor. This involves combining evidence-based eco-design, adapting processes and machinery to new substrates, joint validation with recyclers and logistics operators, and the implementation of ESG dashboards with verifiable data.
Additionally, we promote initiatives that bring theory to the production floor: eco-design workshops applied to specific products, pilot projects validated on production lines, and traceability tools that certify recycled content and the actual recyclability of packaging. Sustainability in packaging is a challenge of design, engineering, and governance. It requires moving from the “what” to the “how”: testing quickly, measuring transparently, and scaling only what proves to work under industrial conditions.
From challenges to opportunities
Challenges of sustainability in the packaging industry are complex, but they also present a great opportunity to innovate with real impact. The key lies in moving from theory to practice, measuring with objective data, validating on the production floor, and collaborating across the entire value chain.
Machinery manufacturers that are part of Barcelona Packaging Hub support companies looking to make this leap, providing technical expertise and concrete tools to turn sustainability into a true competitive advantage. Contact us to discover how the hub’s expert companies can help you drive a sustainable business strategy.