Rising to the Challenges of Sustainable Packaging

Being a realistic optimist means you’re in the Goldilocks zone: You’re able to see challenges with clear eyes, but you’re not willing to accept their bad outcomes.

Packaging sustainability professionals, by the nature of their work, are realistic optimists. They understand that the packaging products they work with play a functional role, fueling a $217 billion sector of the economy. They understand that, without intervention, packaging could continue fanning the flames of the global waste crisis.

But most critically, they understand that together, they have the power to intervene — to build better packaging systems toward a better planet. At SPC Impact 2026, we gathered 800 of these people during Earth Week to build those systems. Here’s how they’re working together to rise to our industry’s challenges.

People are rethinking the status quo

If necessity is the mother of invention, uncertainty is the mother of questioning assumptions.

In other words, sometimes, it takes external pressure to rethink the status quo. Take molded fiber packaging as an example. During SPC Impact, panelists from Huhtamaki, the International Molded Fiber Association, and Sabert Corporation unpacked the industry response to the long-held but now-challenged assumption that molded fiber packaging is recyclable. Amid new California categorizations, experts are rethinking how recyclability is demonstrated: “We’ve never had to prove molded fiber is recyclable… it’s just been accepted.” Moving forward, robust data will be essential.

Similarly, we saw the status quo challenged in compostable packaging. Despite home compostable packaging long being seen as a sustainable alternative to non-recyclable packaging, just how realistic are these solutions? At SPC Impact, SPC Director Olga Kachook presented new research on home compostable behaviors to ground that long-held belief in data. And in a presentation from CJ Biomaterials’ Leah Ford, compostable-certified packaging served as a contrast to non-compostable packaging formats, raising the question: Are we relying too heavily on downstream systems to sort materials that were never designed to succeed there?

“Fundamentally, compostability and the certifications that we use for compostable products are a beautiful methodology for curating materials,” Ford said.

People are inviting experimentation

During SPC Impact, SPC Director Olga Kachook posed the thought experiment: If you had to build your packaging portfolio from scratch today, what would it look like? Some people are already answering that question with their sustainable packaging pilots and initiatives.

In a panel with experts from KIND, Printpack, and Whole Foods Market, we saw how snack-sized experimentation can reap outsized results. The pilot that launched the first Widely Recyclable snack bar wrapper saw its initial challenges — consumers wanted to see the bar through the packaging, for example — but instead of stalling, teams designed around that constraint, piloting, iterating, and using rapid in-store feedback and print tradeoffs to keep moving toward a recyclable wrapper.

“The risk for us is so low to do these trials, and then the results pack a punch way above their weight,” Whole Foods Market’s Sandra Lewis said.

That same willingness to try something different showed up in how the industry is approaching consumer behavior. In How2Recycle’s new campaign, bold, unconventional, “That’s Trash” creative drops the guilt, climate apathy, and consumer responsibility to cut through the noise and concisely help people sort their packaging.

People are studying the outcomes

Of course, experimentation only works if you’re willing to learn from your results.

When it comes to paper packaging recyclability, we know that consumers believe paper packaging to be more sustainable and recyclable. We know that MRFs and mills struggle with paper packaging contamination. But do we know how these two assumptions intersect? SPC’s Brad Kurzynowski broke down new research answering the question “how clean is clean enough” when it comes to recyclable paper packaging. Here’s what we found: Food residue may present a less significant issue for many paper formats than the industry has previously believed — but recyclers still aren’t willing to accept more than they’re already receiving.

At the same time, we’re studying the evolution of recycled content in packaging as new pressures mount around PCR mandates and domestic recycled content end markets. SPC Impact panelists like APR’s Kate Bailey and Green Group Consulting’s Harrison Nix emphasized that PCR mandates don’t exist in a vacuum. Combined with EPR laws, new state PCR mandates link sourcing, design, and reporting — and they could even make reliance on virgin or offshore PCR risky. Their advice? Go for gold (the most historically recycled material), and put materials on the market that are recyclable again, and again, and again.

People are evolving their practices

When the learnings are clear, practices can start to evolve. At SPC Impact, we saw several examples where people evolved their practices and collaborated to drive sustainable packaging wins.

One example is the great Cupgrade of 2026: Earlier this year, collaboration from Closed Loop Partners, How2Recycle, The Recycling Partnership, Starbucks, and WM made headlines when they succeeded in advancing polypropylene cups to a “Widely Recyclable” How2Recycle designation. On stage at SPC Impact, we heard how these collaborators bolstered community recycling access, aligned messaging, and supported end markets to reach this milestone — and how it’s just that, a milestone. The collaboration is one that the group plans on building on to advance recycling for more formats.

We saw this same momentum in new work from the SPC’s Retailer Forum. Bringing together major retailers like Amazon, Walmart, and Target, the Retailer Forum is tapping into the incredible sustainability potential across retailers’ private label brands. How? Put simply, for the first time, these retailers are participating in a collective exercise to clearly define and communicate specific sustainable packaging challenges so that they can work with suppliers to find scalable solutions.

People are rising to the challenges of sustainable packaging

Despite new regulatory, market, and consumer pressures, the people doing the important work of advancing sustainable packaging aren’t stepping down. They’re realistic optimists: They see the barriers clearly, but they’re coming together to get to work anyway.

Put differently, they’re using GreenBlue Executive Director Paul Nowak’s RISE framework to collectively rethink the status quo, invite experimentation, study the outcomes, and evolve their practices.

Why? Because systems won’t change on their own, it’ll take people like you, working together, change them. So if you want to take part in this system-changing work, join an SPC Collaborative, become a member, or meet us at Converge in Vienna.