London Packaging Week 2024: The Pack Hub urges industry to unify infrastructure or risk blocking development

13 Sep 2024 --- At London Packaging Week 2024, packaging innovation consultancy The Pack Hub highlights reuse and refill models as the market’s main changes and how inconsistent infrastructure is hindering their development. On the show floor, Packaging Insights speaks with Katie Roselaar, technical service manager, about systematic barriers to scaling circularity alongside the need for more inclusive packaging designs. 

The Pack Hub tracks new innovations, adds each entry to its database and categorizes them in terms of themes. “It might be paperization, it might be sustainability, it might be any other sort of trends that it might tie into, and then we can give all of that information to our members,” Roselaar tells us. 

Over ten years, the consultancy has collected 9,000 entries in its database. “We add 30 entries to it a week, so there’s nothing really like it,” she notes.

Roselaar singles out infrastructure as the biggest challenge to companies implementing refill and reuse systems. 

“[Companies] have a lot of invested capacity that’s filling a particular pack, for example. And if you put refillable and reusable into that, it totally changes it. So you’ve got this big, established company that’s sweating this massive asset of millions of pounds that’s been invested into a filling site, and how do you get refill to slot into that? Or do you not? Do you just start again? That’s the biggest challenge that I’ve seen, the existing investment and how you work around that.”

The Pack Hub supports companies with designing reusable solutions without losing brand identity.Building refill infrastructure 

The Pack Hub supports companies in dealing with these challenges by analyzing available options.

“For example, is there a pack that will slot in and be fillable in the existing lines? And then we’ll have problems that we’ll have to solve within that, so those problems might be cleaning it, or they might be making sure it’s hygienic, or maybe it’s previously arrived ready for aseptic filling and we need to add another hygiene step,” explains Roselaar.

“It’s a bit like a funnel and a filter. As we’re developing more solutions, we’re knocking more of them out and taking them away until we’ve got one. That’s what we believe is the golden solution that we can take forward.”

Roselaar stresses that refillable and reusable solutions work best at scale when widely adopted. 

“If you use generic packaging, you are stripping the brand identity out of the structure. That’s another problem that we’ll have to tackle. It’s okay when that starts small, but think of the Coca-Cola bottles or spirits bottles and how they’re all different. Think of that and how we will create a refill of a reusable system that works for lots of other brands.”

An example of this approach can currently be seen in France. “From a beverage example, in France by 2027, 10% of beverage packaging will need to be in reusable and refillable packaging,” notes Roselaar.

“You can either take the packaging that they have or you can develop your own. But whichever way it’s going to be, it will be mandatory for packaging to be refillable and reasonable.”

“The PPWR and EPR legislation will could mandate or incentivise refillable and reuseable packaging too, so this will come to the UK very soon,” she adds.

Shifting to reuse and refill 

Consumer calls to abandon single-use containers in favor of authentic reuse and refill systems have been growing, particularly across international sporting events, with activists taking note of “double standards” at this year’s Paris Olympics.

At Wimbledon, Clubzerø offered strawberries and cream ice cream in its returnable packaging, the “Perfect Pot.” Meanwhile, Evian unveiled an arch-shaped drinking water refill system to supply spectators of the tennis tournament and encourage reusable water containers.The Pack Hub identifies a trend of reuseable and refillable options becoming more commonplace. 

Roselaar sees the trend of reuse and refill as becoming more commonplace backed by regulatory shifts. 

“It started as something that eco-conscious consumers and brand owners wanted to do, but now we’re seeing legislation driving it, because it’s a good way to reduce the carbon footprint of products and packaging and to reduce the waste, to genuinely reduce the waste. It’s game-changing for the industry.”

Regarding global packaging legislation updates, Roselaar says that companies reach out to the consultancy to develop suitable models. “[Companies] come to us and say: This is my product. This is my brand. How do I make a refillable module model for this? At the beginning we go through the different options that are there at the moment.”

How to boost inclusive designs?

At London Packaging Week 2024, Roselaar spoke on a panel about the necessity of inclusive design. A few launches this year have given rise to this concept, including Eviosys’ easy-open jar lid and NaviLens’ scannable packaging that aids visually impaired consumers by reading our product information.

However, Roselaar sees inclusive packaging at large ranking lower in priority compared to eco-friendly solutions. “Inclusive design is something that I’ve worked on throughout my career with packaging. I started my career as a packaging designer 25 years ago and even then was involved with inclusive design projects to make packaging openable, accessible and easy for all, no matter your strength or sight.”

“Twenty-odd years later, little bits and pieces in that space have moved on, but not a lot. Not enough.”

Roselaar notes that while over 5,000 of The Pack Hub’s entries mention sustainability, only around 20 to 30 entries aligning with “inclusive,” “accessible” or “universal” design were recorded.

Roselaar says the panelists discussed who is responsible for launching more inclusive designs, and whether it should be legislation. 

“This affects a huge population of the potential population, lots of aging people, lots of younger people might not be as strong, a huge population that is registered with impaired sight so it affects a lot of people, and very serious consequences if it’s not tackled correctly.”

“So today you have asked me what my key take away message for show attendees should be. I would like everyone to really consider their packaging from an inclusive design perspective and to audit how accessible it is. Following the panel session we will send a guide with some practical resources for packaging professionals to use so please watch this space.”

By Natalie Schwertheim, with Louis Gore-Langton reporting from London Packaging Week 2024