Packaging, often a consumer’s first touchpoint with a product, plays a defining role in shaping brand experience and environmental outcomes long before consumption begins, says S Sunil Kumar, business director – packaging, IMEA, Henkel Adhesive Technologies.
“However, modern packaging must do more than just look good; it must simultaneously preserve product integrity, enable operational efficiency, and support massive industrial scale,” he told Packaging South Asia.
Balancing these priorities requires nuanced strategies across different sectors. While fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) packaging demands exceptional shelf appeal and freshness, the eCommerce sector requires structures resilient enough to withstand increasingly complex logistics networks and reduce transit damage. Meanwhile, industrial packaging must deliver durability and reliability in far more demanding environments.
As global sustainability expectations intensify, the packaging industry is shifting toward more efficient use of materials without compromising performance.
“Rather than treating functionality, scalability, and sustainability as conflicting trade-offs, organizations are increasingly adopting solutions that seamlessly combine all three. By preserving product integrity, advanced packaging actively reduces waste across the entire value chain, while sustainable formats lower material usage and boost operational efficiency,” Kumar said.
At the heart of this transition, he explained, are innovative adhesive and coating technologies that have evolved beyond their traditional role of simply bonding materials. Today, they serve as critical enablers for packaging designed specifically for end-of-life outcomes, supporting recyclable, compostable, and bio-based systems. A primary focus of modern packaging science is enabling recyclable structures while reducing material intensity and the overall carbon footprint.
Technologies that lower water and energy consumption during production are becoming vital for brands striving to meet aggressive sustainability goals without sacrificing packaging functionality.
In practice, recycling-compatible adhesive technologies are successfully supporting flexible packaging structures, while specialized wash-off adhesives are improving recycling efficiency in applications such as PET bottles, he said.
Simultaneously, functional barrier coatings are enabling paper packaging to deliver the necessary performance in applications that relied on complex, multi-material structures. The next generation of packaging relies heavily on safer materials, cleaner application processes, and systems designed to be fully compatible with evolving recycling streams.
Innovation in flexible and paper packaging
According to Kumar, the acceleration of innovation across flexible and paper packaging is a direct response to the urgent need for food safety, functionality, and circularity. In the flexible packaging arena, a breakthrough involves enabling recyclable, mono-material structures that safeguard shelf life and product protection, particularly in highly sensitive product categories where freshness is non-negotiable.
Parallel to the evolution of flexible plastics is a distinct shift toward paper-based packaging in select applications. Advanced barrier coatings are increasingly replacing extruded polyethylene, delivering robust resistance to moisture, grease, and oxygen while ensuring the underlying paper remains highly recyclable.
“For food-safe applications, water-based adhesive technologies are anchoring solutions ranging from paper straws and food-service packaging to paper-based multipacks. Across all packaging environments, the momentum is clearly moving toward material-efficient formats that align high-performance capabilities with strict circular economy goals,” Kumar says.
Shifting consumer mandates and lifecycle perspective
“This wave of innovation is heavily propelled by rapidly changing consumer expectations. Modern consumers are looking beyond the product itself, demanding transparent sustainability claims, proven recyclability, and responsible sourcing for both the product and its packaging. Just as confectionery brands prominently highlight deforestation-free cocoa sourcing, consumers are beginning to scrutinize the materials and ingredients that make up the packaging,” he said.
These consumer shifts, combined with stricter global regulations, are forcing businesses to re-evaluate packaging through a holistic lifecycle lens. Sustainability is no longer viewed as an incremental checklist item; it is now recognized as a transformational business imperative linked directly to long-term market competitiveness and resilience.
Henkel’s vision centers on helping make every package sustainable, a goal that directly guides its innovation pipeline. By focusing heavily on recyclable packaging, material reduction, paper-based alternatives, and lower-carbon solutions, Henkel aligns its 2030 sustainability targets with the evolving needs of the global market, he said.
Resolving the multilayer packaging dilemma
Despite the push for simplicity, multilayer packaging remains essential for food, healthcare, and sensitive consumer goods because it provides the high-barrier performance required to preserve freshness and extend shelf life. Consequently, the industry focus is not on eliminating these complex structures, but rather on making them compatible with circular economy goals.
“There is no particular fix for high-barrier flexible packaging, but the industry is actively pursuing multiple advanced pathways. One strategy involves developing recyclable mono-material alternatives for applications with flexible performance boundaries. Another pathway involves replacing certain synthetic layers with paper-based barrier coatings to reduce total packaging complexity from the start. Innovations in adhesives and coatings are maximizing the compatibility of these structures with existing recycling systems,” he said.
While solutions for the most complex packaging configurations continue to evolve, meaningful progress is being achieved through smarter packaging design, strategic material replacement, and inherently recyclable structures.
The momentum for sustainable packaging is further accelerated by strict government regulations, including Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) frameworks. In markets like India, while substantial recycling capacity exists for high-value streams such as PET, the primary bottleneck remains collection, segregation, and sorting infrastructure, which still relies heavily on the informal sector.
As packaging materials become more technologically advanced, strengthening local sorting systems and improving recovery economics becomes vital, he said. “Materials that carry an undeniable, clear recycling value naturally see stronger collection rates, whereas complex formats require enhanced ecosystem support and structural incentivization.”
“Government policies are highly effective at creating momentum, but ultimate success hinges on ecosystem readiness and designing materials that are compatible with existing infrastructure from the outset. Ultimately, scaling true packaging circularity will require deep, sustained collaboration connecting policymakers, industry leaders, downstream recyclers, and the informal waste sector,” he concluded.
