RethINK PACKAGING: Reconfiguring the Packaging System for a Circular Future

News Posts

January, 2021

The future of packaging is circular

While packaging has improved standards of living by creating access to safe food and water, reducing food waste and ensuring hygiene in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors, it is also a contributor to various ecological crises. According to research published by the PEW Charitable Trust and SYSTEMIQ, only 59 per cent of plastic waste is formally collected, and less than 15 per cent is actually recycled. The world’s plastic waste is expected to double and ocean leakage is expected to triple by 2040.

A system-wide transition to an alternative approach, where packaging waste is eliminated, is urgently needed. By championing innovations for sustainable packaging, Siegwerk has emerged as an unlikely enabler of circular economy solutions across the packaging value chain. Its approach facilitates circularity by implementing two concepts: designing for less, and designing for recycling.

Circular design is not limited to the appearance of packaging, but also extends to design within the broader system, and within the lifespan of that packaging.

Download Siegwerk’s circular economy white paper to find out how thinking laterally about design processes can ensure that the technical functionality of printing inks and coatings supports all three levers of a circular economy: reduction, reuse and recycle.

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