World Packaging Day: WPO introduces global celebration to raise awareness

The World Packaging Organization (WPO) has designated September 6th as World Packaging Day to raise global awareness of packaging as a “strategic enabler of our modern life in society.”

“Packaging is present in every aspect of our daily lives, serving society across the globe by allowing efficient production chains and logistics, product preservation, and functional usability, reducing losses and waste, enhancing sustainability in consumption, and most of all, safe and convenient access to goods for a better quality of life for society,” says Luciana Pellegrino, president of the WPO.

Professor Pierre Pienaar, director and founder of the Australia-based consultancy PackTech Solutions, comments: “Packaging often faces negative public perception regarding waste. This day reframes it as a strategic, problem-solving infrastructure rather than just a disposable container.”

“It creates a unified platform for industry leaders, policymakers, educators, and consumers to work together on systemic challenges. It also emphasizes how safe, functional packaging enables the reliable distribution of food, medicine, and essential goods to billions of people worldwide.”

A collaborative occasion

The WPO describes World Packaging Day as a global collaborative occasion rather than a single centralized event. The organization encourages its members and all packaging industry stakeholders worldwide to organize local initiatives, such as conferences, educational programs, factory visits, sustainability projects, innovation showcases, student activities, and public awareness campaigns.

The WPO says it has created “a shared global identity” for the occasion, aligned by the hashtag #worldpackagingday.

World Packaging Day highlights four strategic themes, according to the organization. These are: packaging for progress, packaging against food waste, packaging and economic growth, and packaging and sustainability.

In detail, packaging for progress concerns the importance of solutions that contribute to health, safety, accessibility, and quality of life, while packaging against food waste demonstrates how packaging protects food, extends shelf life, and improves food safety.

The concept of packaging for economic growth presents the industry’s role in supporting brands, logistics, manufacturing, exports, e-commerce, and international trade. At the same time, the WPO says that the packaging industry is promoting circular economy principles, eco-design, responsible consumption, and material innovation.

Pellegrino adds: “As new technologies reshape our industry, we invite organizations, companies, and professionals to join the conversation, share their perspectives, and learn from one another.”

At Interpack 2026 in Germany, Nerida Kelton, the VP of sustainability and safe food at WPO, said that while the packaging industry is making progress on recyclability and monomaterial design, it still needs to address the more difficult trade-off between packaging waste and food waste.

Discussing Packaging Insights’ Top Packaging Trends 2026 webinar, Kelton highlighted EPR regulations, single-use plastics regulations, and bans on chemicals of concern as key regulatory factors driving industry developments.