New Year’s Evolution: Packaging industry experts look ahead to 2026

Packaging Solutions

 The New Year is often a time for reflection – but in the packaging industry, the focus is firmly on the future. Ahead of Packaging Innovations & Empack 2026, key industry figures discussed their hopes, expectations, and predictions for the year ahead.

This is set to be another hugely consequential year for packaging businesses. Between the stratospheric rise of AI technology, continued legislative change, and increasing costs across the world, there is certainly no shortage of challenges for the industry to contend with.

Shows like Packaging Innovations & Empack, which returns to the Birmingham NEC on 11 and 12 February, will be central to overcoming those challenges, bringing together the very best and brightest of the global packaging industry under one roof. With another blockbuster event on the horizon, professionals from across the world spoke about the talking points that they expect to see unpacked on the show floor – and throughout the year.

Mike Revell, executive chair of The Foodservice Packaging Association

As we move into 2026, the UK foodservice packaging sector finds itself at a pivotal moment of transition, innovation and accountability. Our members are now fully living with extended producer responsibility (EPR), and this year we expect broader integration of data accuracy, material transparency and evidence based practice.

With year 2 illustrative disposal fees published by PackUK and regulatory refinements underway, businesses that have invested in robust data systems and thoughtful material choices will be better positioned to manage cost volatility and compliance risk. Our regulatory and compliance committee will continue to work towards a level playing field and hold free riders to account through our primary authority partnership.

Packaging tax reform and the upcoming increase in Plastic Packaging Tax rates from April will further accelerate demand for high quality recycled content and alternative substrates. This provides a clear economic incentive to innovate, but also requires careful technical evaluation to ensure food safety, functionality, and end of life outcomes are not compromised.

Developments in EU packaging rules and global sustainability agendas, including tightened green claims and evolving plastics policy, will influence supply chains and customer expectations. Even for UK focused businesses, alignment with international norms and transparent claims practices is increasingly becoming a commercial imperative as well as a regulatory one. The FPA remains committed to supporting our members through these changes, advocating for workable policy, and promoting innovation. To this end, we are very much looking forward to Packaging Innovations & Empack at the NEC in February and to joining our members exhibiting within the Foodservice Packaging Zone.

Emma Verkaik, CEO of BCMPA

As we enter 2026, community remains at the heart of the BCMPA’s work. With more than 200 members operating across nine distinct sectors, the BCMPA is the association for contract manufacturing, packing, fulfilment and logistics and brings together businesses and represents many different types of businesses offering a range of services and with different specialisms across nine product sectors, from food – drink – personal care, chemical – nutraceutical – pet care and more, yet each of them face many of the same pressures, from labour availability and rising costs to regulatory change and EPR. What unites them is their ability to provide invaluable support to brands looking for outsourcing support, a complex, service led proposition that relies on trust, collaboration, and long-term partnership. Through open dialogue, shared experience, and active engagement, the BCMPA community continues to strengthen its collective voice.

The role of the BCMPA is not simply to represent the sector, but to guide and connect. Many brands and product owners arrive unsure of exactly what they need, whether that is a niche contract packing capability, third party sourcing support, or technical advice on machinery and processes. By providing a platform for members to raise awareness of their services and by maintaining a visible, approachable industry presence, the BCMPA helps businesses find the right third party support and navigate the complexities of the search process. This reflects a broader shift within the sector itself. Where relationships were once largely transactional, the emphasis is now firmly on value, resilience, and partnership. The wider packaging industry increasingly recognises the integral role of co-packers and fulfilment specialists in supporting agile supply chains and carbon reduction. Third party outsourcing is now seen as a strategic enabler rather than a cost saving exercise.

In 2026, the BCMPA will build on this momentum with initiatives to support SMEs and celebrate the value of third party suppliers. The Contract Pack and Fulfilment Show, co-located with Packaging Innovations and Empack at the NEC Birmingham on 11 and 12 February, will see the debut of Pitch the Co-Packers, a Dragons’ Den-style competition that gives scalable product concepts direct access to industry expertise. The association will also maintain a strong presence at key trade events, including Making Nutraceuticals, ChemUK, London Packaging Week, and White Label World Expo. The BCMPA Conference returns on 31 March and 1 April at the Oxford Belfry, bringing industry leaders together to address the most pressing issues shaping the sector, including EPR, regulatory change, cybersecurity, digitalisation, and the role of technology in addressing ongoing labour challenges.

Flexibility has never been more important. Brands are operating in an environment shaped by disruption, rapid shifts in demand, and the need to respond quickly, whether to global supply chain pressures or sudden growth driven by consumer trends. UK contract manufacturers, packers, and fulfilment specialists continue to demonstrate their value by combining human expertise with incremental technological advances. This delivers agility and the reassurance that many growing brands cannot achieve on their own. This is a year for the BCMPA community to be more vocal, more connected, and more influential in shaping the future of the sector. By working together, sharing knowledge, and championing the value of third party outsourcing, the community will be better placed to turn today’s challenges into long term opportunities.

Thomas Glendinning, managing director of Sovereign Labelling Machines

Productivity and sustainability have historically been treated as competing priorities, but today they are viewed as two sides of the same coin. From the development of recyclable mono-material plastics and greater use of fibre based packaging solutions to highly automated manufacturing lines that maximise uptime and strip waste out of production, all have a part to play in helping the label and packaging industry improve its performance and remain suitable in the worlds of today and tomorrow.

This underscores how robust, flexible, and future ready labelling and sleeving technology is critical for brands, co-packers, and contract manufacturers across FMCG, beverages, personal care, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and more. Businesses that win will be those that treat labelling and sleeving as a strategic capability that touches productivity, compliance, brand value, and total cost of ownership.

At one end of the spectrum are those seeking fully integrated, turnkey labelling and sleeving solutions. They want a comprehensive platform from a partner who can expertly engineer and support the complete workflow: bespoke and modular, from infeed, conveying, application, inspection, tamper evidence, to outfeed. The integration of third party solutions adds another layer of depth and complexity.

Such requirements have shaped multiple projects that we have fulfilled this year and ensured we have been able to support our customers with the most sophisticated labelling and sleeving needs.

At the other end of the spectrum, there are many brands and co-packers seeking straightforward, functional, and cost efficient systems that are tailored to their needs and can label and sleeve jars, cans, bottles, and other containers precisely, at high speed, and at the highest quality.

What unites these solutions is a focus on total cost of ownership. For all customers, the right financing structure, robust build quality, and a clear upgrade path are just as important as the purchase price. The conversations in 2025 have been far more strategic, looking at lifecycle costs, uptime, training requirements, and integration with upstream and downstream equipment.

Mark Stephenson, business development manager, packaging and inkjet business at Fujifilm Europe

More and more I hear how businesses are becoming increasingly risk averse as they gather, and are possibly distracted by, mountains of data and analysis. Decisions are delayed and whole projects are abandoned for lack of clarity as we all drown in a sea of unreliable forecasts and projections. Depressing, isn’t it?

My goal for 2026 is to present ever more compelling arguments that remove any doubt, telling relatable customer stories that say far more than data tables or industry forecasts.

This is the year of print and packaging in the real world.

Are we talking directly to our customers or have we settled for relationships by proxy of emailed documents, shared links and executive summaries?

This is the time for us to lift our eyes from Excel, Tableau and the weekly dashboard and do business face to face, eye to eye, business to business.

Catherine Conway, policy lead, GoUnpackaged

This is the year that retailers, brands, and government need to step up on reuse. Now that Extended Producer Responsibility fees are increasing costs for unsustainable packaging, the obvious answer for many products and use cases is reuse. Evidence shows that the switch to well designed reusable packaging will lower overall system costs and EPR fees, as well as dramatically reduce the environmental impacts of packaging in the form of lower carbon emissions, less virgin resource use, and less waste.

With the Reuse Packaging Partnership's commitment by nine leading UK retailers to implement an interoperable 'buy anywhere, return anywhere' reusable packaging system across multiple retailers and brands by 2030, and WRAP's new Packaging Pact , it is time for leading businesses to turn their words into action and put us on the transition to a meaningful level of reusable packaging for consumers to access. Research shows that over three quarters (77%) of consumers want to see all retailers offer reusable, refillable, and returnable packaging long term. This will take time to implement so 2026 must be the year we start.

Andrew Wakeley, market development manager at Taghleef

Looking ahead to 2026, the UK flexible packaging market faces both challenge and transformation. Persistent economic pressures – including high energy costs and the ongoing impact of the Plastic Packaging Tax – are pushing companies to prioritise long term material performance and reliability over short term savings. EPR is a key driver, with producer fees increasingly expected to reflect packaging recyclability, assessed through the Recyclability Assessment Methodology (RAM). Action on circularity and credible recycled content claims is no longer optional, and the launch of the UK Packaging Pact in April 2026 will provide further structure, setting measurable targets to optimise packaging, scale reuse and refill systems, support circular infrastructure investment, and harmonise data for better traceability and reporting.

Commercially, flexibility, speed, and the ability to manage smaller, diversified runs will be critical. Companies that can deliver practical, sustainable packaging solutions while maintaining efficiency will be best placed to succeed in a cost conscious, fast moving, and increasingly sustainability driven market.

As a films manufacturer, our role is to guide customers through these complex material choices, ensuring their packaging is fit for purpose, compliant, and fully aligned with the evolving regulatory landscape.

Adam Herriott, senior specialist, WRAP

This year should mark a shift from disruption to discipline in the UK packaging system. With pEPR beginning to reshape cost signals, Simpler Recycling improving consistency across collections, and the UK Packaging Pact launching this spring, the direction of travel is becoming clearer and more stable than it has been for some time. The real risk now is moving too fast and locking in decisions before the system has fully settled. Incremental optimisation, aligning formats with real UK infrastructure, streamlining portfolios, and designing for where the system is going rather than where it was, is likely to deliver better outcomes than rapid format switching driven by short term pressure. My wish for the year ahead is that businesses continue to work collaboratively with WRAP and one another through the UK Packaging Pact to improve packaging design, use data to guide decisions, and keep circularity at the centre of the system.

Shaun Wild, sales director at Sheard Packaging

Looking ahead to 2026, we hope the packaging industry continues to focus on creating real value for customers, not just through materials or cost, but by improving performance across the wider supply chain. That means thinking more carefully about how packaging is designed and specified, and recognising that the best outcomes come from close collaboration between manufacturers and customers from the outset.

As an industry, we would love to see the strong partnerships that already exist continue to grow. When manufacturers and customers work closely together, even small, well considered changes to a box can make a big difference, from sustainability and efficiency, through to handling, transport, and storage costs. People remain central to that progress. A lot of the real progress we see comes from sitting down with customers and asking a few simple questions about how their packaging is actually used. Often, it is the small changes that make the biggest difference.

We are looking forward to being at Packaging Innovations as a chance to have those conversations directly with customers, sharing ideas, discussing challenges and showing how small changes can deliver real impact across their whole supply chain. From our own perspective, 2026 is about continuing to grow in the right way and showing up for our customers. Strengthening relationships, investing in our people and capabilities, and supporting both existing and new customers with packaging that genuinely works for their supply chain.

Charlotte Davies, senior consultant – resource efficiency and circularity and Rob Lewis, international compliance manager at Beyondly

The future of packaging will be shaped by data, innovation, and collaboration. Comprehensive data collection is becoming non negotiable, and businesses must establish baselines, track progress, and measure performance across their packaging portfolios. Companies that build strong data systems and engage suppliers early will adapt more easily to changing EPR and sustainability regulations. Robust data systems will underpin best practice reporting, helping companies demonstrate accountability while gaining a competitive advantage through proactive compliance and transparency.

As regulations tighten, costs increase, and environmental expectations grow, the sector will need to continue to move up the waste hierarchy, prioritising waste prevention and reuse. Future strategies will likely emphasise innovative reuse solutions, with packaging designed for circularity and minimal waste. Wider developments such as the inclusion of waste incineration within the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) will further drive the need for recyclable or reusable materials to further mitigate waste management costs. In addition to this, a collaborative supply chain will be essential, leveraging tools like digital product passports to enhance transparency and traceability.

Success will require a cross-functional approach, aligning sustainability, packaging design, marketing, and supplier expertise. By integrating environmental goals with functionality from the design stage, producers can meet both regulatory demands and consumer expectations, creating packaging that protects the product while minimising environmental impact.

Andy Sweetman, sales and marketing director – EMEA at Futamura UK

As we enter 2026, we sense a growing realisation that the packaging waste challenge demands a more holistic approach than just recycling on its own. The initial form of the UK’s EPR RAM system placed too strong an emphasis on recycling mainstream polymers and not enough on the role that novel polymers can play in providing end of life options especially in applications where conventional recycling is impractical; applications such as fruit and veg labels, tea and coffee pods, packaging contaminated by food residues, sachets and small format confectionery wrappers.

As UK producers of renewable and compostable flexible films, under the NatureFlex tradename, we therefore welcome the latest proposals from PackUK that start to recognise the potential of the so-called ‘other’ category with an enhanced base fee.

Mike Banister, CEO of Hunter Luxury

Over the last few years, political change and economic pressure have combined to push sustainability down the priority list in some areas. My hope for 2026 is that the industry does not allow hard earned leadership in sustainability to fall by the wayside. I want us all to refocus on what really matters in the long term – and to remember why it matters.

Jane Struk, creative director at ARD agency

Looking towards 2026, at ARD we believe the focus will shift towards designing packaging that works better for people.

Accessibility, clarity and smart material choices will matter as much as aesthetics.

The real challenge will be creating packaging that feels intuitive and responsible, while still being distinctive and desirable.

Ultimately, success will come from understanding real consumer needs and translating them into meaningful design decisions.

Lucy Bosten, head of marketing and communications at Carlton Packaging

As we step into 2026, the print and packaging industry is doing more than moving toward sustainability; it is redefining what responsible packaging looks like in everyday use. What once felt largely driven by customer pressure is now firmly built into business thinking and innovation.

At Carlton, we are seeing a clear move away from simply switching materials, towards designing smarter, more circular packaging that works harder across sustainability, efficiency, and performance. The focus is on long term impact, and it is an exciting time to be part of shaping what the future of packaging looks like.

Nicholas Mockett, packaging corporate finance/mergers and acquisitions partner with Moorgate Capital

On 2 January 2026, the FTSE 100 reached an all time high of 10,000 (the index started on 3 January 1984 at 1000). This followed a record breaking year for the FTSE 100 in 2025, during which it closed at an all time high 41 times and delivered its best performance since 2009, rising by 21.5%.

Prima facie that sounds like good news if you have a (vested) interest in the health of the UK economy. However, around 70% to 80% of the revenue of FTSE 100 companies comes from outside the UK.

The FTSE250 was up less than 9% during 2025 and this is more representative of UK economy as the constituents’ revenue which comes from UK is over 40%.

Even so, the market pushing up these indices by 20% or 9% is quite remarkable given the political situation, globally and here in UK.   

But this does not necessarily mean all segments of the economy are performing strongly, the increase could be due to expectations about the future and a flight of capital from other markets which have more turmoil. 

What of those expectations? Talking with packaging clients in almost every continent of the globe, including those with multinational footprints, 2025 was generally soft. Even in the food markets consumers’ expenditure has been subdued. But 2025 was a difficult year to get a read on. Trump tariffs (or threat of) caused rushes to supply into USA which brought forward demand for goods, and therefore packaging. This may well have washed out.

Looking at valuation multiples of publicly listed packaging companies (those on a stock exchange) an important metric in packaging is enterprise value to earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortisation. With recent packaging mergers and acquisitions, we have fewer companies still listed on the London Stock Exchange, the recent plc deal was DS Smith being taken over by International Paper. But looking at international EV/EBITDA multiples for 10 of the largest global packaging companies, only one is trading on a higher EV/EBITDA than last year.

When mergers and acquisitions deals are undertaken, buyers typically mark to market when negotiating value. So, if you are a vendor, this may not be the best news, but if you are embarking on a growth through acquisition strategy you may be licking your lips. 

Moreover, the sector continues to attract interest from financial institutions, including private equity, as overall, the packaging market continues to grow in most territories. Some end market segments are even more attractive, typically pharmaceutical, healthcare, and personal care.

Given the number of large cap packaging transactions undertaken in the last year or two, we expect a wave of consolidation as the next tiers of packaging industry players seek to expand to compete with the industry leaders. In industrial economic theory, this should lead to better conduct and hence better margins. Something to look forward to in 2026 and beyond. 

However, in light of the news of the USA imprisoning Nicolas Maduro, it is clear we can expect political instability in 2026 with concomitant impacts on economies and markets. The good news is, on the whole, consumers don’t stop eating, drinking, and brushing their teeth, which all require packaging.  

Gregory Bentley, SBFE packaging director and SMEE director at Suntory

As we enter 2026, the packaging industry faces a critical juncture driven by regulatory changes and evolving consumer expectations. This puts the industry in a moment where adaptation becomes just as important as innovation. The sector’s readiness for Deposit Return Systems (DRS) reflects our commitment to circularity, with schemes expanding across Europe, including the UK. We are aligning operations and supply chains to boost recycling rates and ensure smooth implementation. The Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) brings both challenges and opportunities, requiring harmonised standards and collaboration to meet ambitious goals for recyclability, reusability, and reduced environmental impact. Legislative uncertainty – such as France’s evolving single use plastics rules – demands agility and close engagement with policymakers. At Suntory Beverage & Food Europe we are working toward 100% sustainable plastic packaging by 2030. Our transition to 100% rPET for our major brands in France and for the Ribena brand packaging in GB&I shows how this shift is already taking place.

Consumers remain central to our strategy. We must balance convenience and performance with lighter, sustainable packaging through innovation in design, materials, and end of life solutions – meeting regulations while inspiring positive behaviour change. Guided by our Japanese principles of Gemba, which means being close to real everyday moments, and Seikatsusha which recognises people as whole individuals shaped by their values and routines, we are getting insights into how packaging is handled, used, and disposed of, allowing us to design solutions that fit evolving behaviours.

Finally, developing and empowering the next generation of packaging professionals is vital. Their creativity and expertise will drive progress, ensuring packaging continues to deliver value and sustainability in a rapidly changing world.

Kelly Dawson, co-founder and strategy partner at specialist innovation agency Studio Every

Our perspective is always, ‘have we delivered something that is going to create a competitive edge in the future?’ Call it differentiation, disruption, call it what you like – it has got to stand out, show up, and win hearts and minds. We look at the market landscape, where everyone else is selling the same thing but slightly different, and say, ‘you have a licence to own this space that doesn’t feel occupied’.

Some categories can be chaotic as everyone is saying the same things. But for those more ambitious brands, we should talk about what is after. In the current economic climate, a lot of people don’t have time for that – it is all hands on deck in the here and now. But from time to time, people look ahead to the beyond the next few years or the next decade. 2030 is getting close from a launch pipeline point of view. And if you are linking things together, then you have got that licence to really get ahead and be a leader in your domain.

If I am being realistic, 80% of your focus must be on what is next. This helps develop a coherence. No consumer will follow a brand that is zig zagging. However, just a little imagination beyond your next launch goes a long way.

Robin Buisseret, artwork automation specialist, founder and CEO at r.stream

Looking ahead to 2026, the packaging industry is on the cusp of a fundamental shift, as the newest and most powerful technologies begin to transform packaging processes in ways we have never seen before. What feels experimental today will rapidly become operational, forcing the industry to rethink not just how packaging is produced, but how quickly and intelligently it can respond to changing market demands.

A key priority within this transformation will be the democratisation of AI, making advanced tools accessible to brands that need to increase speed to market for packaging artworks without compromising quality or control. By 2026, the first genuinely practical and scalable AI use cases in packaging artwork creation will begin to emerge, moving beyond theory and pilots into real world application, and setting a new benchmark for efficiency, agility and creative possibility across the sector.

Amy Hooper, head of innovation at Biffa

We want to make sure that recycled content is used more than it is currently and that it is cheaper than virgin content. Our plastics recycling industry is struggling. And that is not great for the circular economy, right? I would love to see much more of a push towards people using grounded terminology for where their packaging is at. Is it genuinely recyclable or not? Using the right words for that – less confusion there in terms of advertising.

I think the value chain needs to come together on the legislation that is been introduced this year and is coming in next year to make sure that we are all pointing in the same direction. There has been a lot of talk about reuse this year, a lot of research coming out – but I would want to see that concrete steps are made in 2026 to get reuse into a commercially scalable solution in the UK, not just spoken about.

I would like to add a bit about consumer perceptions – consumer confusion and the terminology used on packaging. We as an industry and value chain have all been trying to wrap our heads around, 'What does simpler recycling mean? What does EPR mean?’ The next step, which needs to start next year, is how we communicate with the public about what these changes mean for them, so that their behaviours follow as well. But also, we need to crack down on terminology around biodegradable and compostable, and people claiming things about recyclability that aren't actually true.

I would love it if the focus for the new year is on keeping some of the expertise and capability that we have within the UK strong, especially in the plastics recycling industry – if that falls through in the UK, that would be a huge loss to something we had managed to keep here.

Luke Wilson, managing director of Face Progressive Printed Packaging 

As we head into 2026, I believe the print and packaging industry stands at a defining moment. The year ahead will demand more clarity, more courage and more collaboration than ever before – however, it also presents enormous opportunity for those prepared to lead with purpose.

My hope for 2026 is that sustainability finally moves beyond rhetoric and into genuinely intelligent execution. Brands no longer want packaging that simply claims to be sustainable; they want solutions that are provably ecological, commercially viable and creatively uncompromising.

Our ambition is to solve complex challenges and create the most compelling packaging possible – without asking brands to choose between responsibility and impact.

One of my key priorities is elevating packaging to its rightful place as a highly strategic brand storytelling tool. As digital saturation continues to grow, physical packaging has a renewed power to captivate, connect and create unforgettable moments.

In 2026, I expect we will see progressive brands invest more deeply in impactful design, colour, decoration and storytelling – using the power of print to forge genuine emotional connections with consumers across global markets.

I also predict a shift in how authority is defined in our industry. The most trusted partners will not be those offering the loudest claims, but those able to guide brands confidently through complexity. From the unsexy compliance and supply chain transparency aspects, through to the more sexy structural packaging design, innovation and execution stages.

Ultimately, 2026 must be the year the industry proves it can move faster, think smarter, design better and be more creative than ever.

For brands, for consumers and for the planet.

That is the future we are building towards, and one I am genuinely excited to help shape.

Adam Platts, sales and marketing director, VPK Packaging UK and Ireland

In 2026, we expect the packaging industry to continue moving beyond incremental change and into more fundamental transformation. Rising cost pressures, labour challenges, and increasing regulatory complexity mean that packaging performance will be judged not just on sustainability credentials, but on how reliably it supports supply chains end to end.

For us at VPK, the focus is on consistency, resilience, and value creation. Brands are looking for partners who can help them reduce complexity, improve logistics efficiency, and maintain strong shelf presence, all while meeting evolving environmental expectations. That puts greater emphasis on smart design, robust materials, and closer collaboration between packaging, operations, and logistics teams.

We also see a growing opportunity for corrugated packaging to play a more strategic role, not only as a transport solution, but as a contributor to brand recognition and operational efficiency. The year ahead will be about doing the fundamentals exceptionally well, while helping customers adapt to a more demanding and fast moving market.

Yaseed Chaumoo, managing director of Deepnest by Greyparrot 

This will be the first year that packaging performance at the sorting line shows up directly on brand profit and loss. In the UK and EU, the era of ‘theoretically recyclable’ packaging is ending. From 2026, Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and the EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) start to link fees and obligations to how packaging actually behaves in the waste system, not just what’s printed on the back of pack.

Recyclability will determine whether a format sits in a green, amber or red band – and therefore whether it is cheap or expensive to put on the market. For FMCG and CPG leaders, this is no longer a compliance footnote. It is about controlling three things at once: packaging costs, climate impact and competitiveness. Brands that move early to design for real world sortability will pay less in EPR, face fewer regulatory shocks and be better positioned with retailers and consumers. Those that don’t will be subsidising everyone else.

For the first time, we also have the data infrastructure to treat these as hard business decisions, not green hunches. In 2025, AI from Deepnest by Greyparrot analysed 43.5 billion individual packaging items moving through real sorting plants. This is the first dataset that shows, at scale, how packaging truly performs – not in guidelines or lab tests, but on actual conveyor belts. The results are sobering. Nearly one in five packs still fails to make it into a recyclable output stream. The worst performers are formats brands already suspect but haven’t been able to quantify: black plastics, metallised films, EPS and low grade fibres. The best performers – clear PET bottles, white dairy tubs, corrugated board, aluminium – consistently deliver high capture and clean material streams. Crucially, this isn’t just a story about bottles and cans. In health and personal care categories, where portfolios are full of sachets, pumps, tubes and shrinkwrapped packs, our work with leading brands shows that many ‘recyclable’ designs underperform badly once they hit the line. Without intervention, a material share of today’s portfolio is on course for the red end of modulated fee scales from 2026 onwards. This creates a new kind of C-suite question for 2026: ‘What happens to our EPR bill, and our effective packaging margin, if we redesign 10%, 20%, 30% of our portfolio for real world sortability?’ Deepnest’s role is to answer that question with evidence.

Against the backdrop of the UK’s ambition to lead in AI deployment, this creates a unique opportunity for UK headquartered brands to lead globally on AI enabled packaging strategy: using real world data, not lab claims, as the basis for capital allocation and design. Last year (2025) showed that packaging ambition and reality are still far apart. This year will be the year where brands that design for the sorting line lock in an advantage – in cost, in resilience and in access to markets – and those that don’t start to feel it in their invoices.

Pierre-Yves Paslier, co-founder of Notpla

I would say 2026 is the year natural polymers will become a standalone category on the market, especially for food service packaging. It is not only Notpla's seaweed boxes in the market that are so exciting, but other players like Xampla's green peas and Traceless corn are making their first steps out of the lab and into the hands of consumers. We see that as a good thing!

I also believe 2026 marks a real turning point in how the industry recognises the health implications of microplastics. The evidence is now linking everyday packaging materials to microplastic exposure through food and drink, with evidenced impact on our ‘brains, balls, and babies’. What is striking is that this issue polls consistently well across the political and cultural spectrum. In an increasingly polarised world, protecting human health is something people can still agree on. As that consensus strengthens, we are seeing brands' desire to move decisively towards materials that are safe by design, rather than relying on complex chemistries to manage risk, fundamentally reshaping how we define decency and responsibility in packaging.

Jude Pullen, creative technologist, designer and chartered engineer

As we move into 2026, the most meaningful shift in packaging innovation is not the emergence of new technology, but the way existing tools, particularly AI, are being applied with greater maturity and restraint. Rather than chasing disruption for its own sake, the focus is increasingly on practical optimisation that improves everyday human workflows. In my work with RS Group, using Nvidia technology, this took the form of ‘Relaxed Tetris Packing’: simple AI driven recommendations that help packers fit more items into a box without specialist skills or extra time. The intent was never to replace people, but to make their jobs easier while reducing waste and costs. That convergence of human benefit, environmental gain, and commercial value feels genuinely different as we look ahead to 2026.

Regulation is accelerating this shift from experimentation to action. The EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, particularly limits on void fill ­– and will force companies to rethink how efficiently goods are shipped. While some categories will move towards padded mailers, boxes will remain essential for heavier or fragile items, making optimisation unavoidable. This is where AI excels by addressing the ‘low hanging fruit’, outperforming inexperienced packers and delivering consistent gains at scale. What began as an ‘art of the possible’ exploration now aligns directly with regulatory timelines, illustrating how early, ethical experimentation can evolve into a strategic advantage rather than last minute compliance.

By 2026, AI’s role in packaging will be firmly embedded in optimisation, not creative replacement. It works best on known systems with known variables, from packing efficiency to material usage, while humans remain essential for judgement, creativity and navigating uncertainty. The organisations best positioned for this future are those running small, low risk pilots that educate teams and de-risk decisions, rather than reacting in panic when regulation bites. In this context, the real innovation is not smarter algorithms, but a more human approach to technological change, one that values trust, participation, and ‘good enough’ progress over perfection.

Put yourself at the heart of the packaging conversations that will define 2026 – and beyond – with a free ticket to Packaging Innovations & Empack. Click here to secure your place today.