Looking to the future, what lies in store for the packaging industry? The quickly changing landscape of geopolitics and trade, along with the continued growth of e-commerce and ongoing sustainability expectations, indicate that two materials will come out as clear winners—paper and flexible plastics.
That’s according to Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG) “Flexible by Design: The New Playbook for Packaging in North America.” They ran extensive quantitative modeling of product categories and packaging types to map what they see ahead. They see packaging industry leaders’ future-proofing their portfolios, building more agile and resilient supply chains, getting smarter about pricing, and pushing sustainable innovation forward—ideally by collaborating across the value chain and not going it alone.
THE SHIFTING LANDSCAPE
BCG researchers identified what they call “major megatrends"—driven by long-term economic and structural shifts, they believe these shifts will be reshaping North America’s packaging industry over the next five to ten years. Together, these megatrends will ultimately change not just what packaging is made of, but how companies think about innovation. While cost and performance still matter, they no longer are the only factors in the decision. The next packaging choices will be shaped by a much more complicated mix of forces already in play, some of which may seem contradictory:
Global Trade: Rules are shifting, and the packaging industry is feeling it. While tariff outcomes are still evolving, one thing is clear: their impact on global trade and packaging costs will be long-lasting. As protectionism and regionalization continue to grow, companies are being forced to rethink how and where they source materials, pushing many to diversify suppliers, swap out substrates, and revisit long-standing packaging choices.