The packaging industry has introduced sustainable and intelligent solutions for making the packaging of products more user and environmentally friendly. The main packing trends that enable innovative packing are the internet of packaging, active packaging, and nanotechnology usage. Nevertheless, since coronavirus has forced people to stay in their houses, packing for online shopping has created the challenge of waste production. A secure and less-waste-produced packaging solution is now vital to excel your E-store growth. Vendors are also looking to reduce their packaging costs to offer goods at competitive rates.
Therefore, scaleups and startups have accelerated edible, recyclable, and biodegradable packing innovations. Simultaneously, robotic packing and three-dimensional printing ease packing processes and cut packing costs for consumer product manufacturers and brands. If you are new to this industry and looking forward to excelling more, this article is undoubtedly for you!
Top 10 Ways You Can Bring Innovation in Your Packaging
1. Internet of packaging
The internet of packaging is a packing trend that equips conventional packaging with technology and permits consumers to connect better with businesses. Smart packing leverages smart labels, quick response codes, near-field communication, and radio frequency identification chips.
These modern advanced technologies provided value-added advantages of connectivity, validity, and safety, turning the packing of the product into a digital tool and data carrier. The internet of things devices and sensors have let businesses equip their packaging with indicator and diagnostic functionalities. This helps their customers become aware of the product’s condition in real-time.
2. Biodegradable packing
Since the start of the twentieth century, plastic has been the most popular packaging material. Nevertheless, it decomposes slowly; therefore, it causes extensive environmental problems. As consumers are aware of the single-use plastic packaging disadvantages, they want eco-friendly packing.
Biodegradable films and packing have gained traction, and they have become suitable alternates to conventional plastic packaging in today’s modern world. For instance, cellulose, starch, polyhydroxy butyrate, polyhydroxyalkanoates, and other biopolymers are used in the packing industry.
In addition to them, plastic-based packing from corn starch, hemp, coconut, and sugar cane is also used instead of plastic packaging. These innovative packing trends are affordable for brands to adopt and cut down their effect on the atmosphere.
3. Digital printing
The procedure of packaging printing comes with several challenges; some of those are accuracy, high costs of labor, and low color quality. This provides an opportunity for innovating the packaging procedure with digital printing, making it a top innovative packaging trend. Contrasting flexo or conventional offset printing techniques, it does not need exclusive plates for various prints.
The printing of all the content is done in one pass in digital printing, making it less burdensome. Modernized digital printing affects the environment by eliminating the demand for different labeling or prepress processes, lowering inventory needs, and reducing waste.
Additionally, with less time to turn around and more flexibility for experimenting with the design, digital printing enables tailor-made packaging for businesses to meet the needs of various consumer subgroups. Direct thermal printing is a printing technique that employs thermal imagery for printing labels and flexible packing without using inks.
4. Packaging automation
The main challenges related to packaging are quality control, precision, and productivity. Automation of packing procedures, e.g., for place and pick, depending, palletizing, labeling, sealing, packing, and filling, is a massive trend of the packaging industry. Packaging automation by employing grippers and robotic arms helps the packaging process eliminate human mistakes and ensures the secure handling of delicate items.
Finally, packaging startups have also established artificial intelligence-backed vision technologies that take photos of the finished products for analyzing the packing that fulfills the packaging standards set. These vision-assisted robotic systems automate processes like inspection, quality control, and product sorting to boost efficiency.
5. Active Packaging
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has claimed that 33.33 percent of all the food produced globally is wasted. Food waste is a considerable challenge that food producers need to address to ensure that they do not suffer from massive losses.
Active packaging is a rising packaging industry trend, which packaging professionals employ to increase the product’s shelf life. It has applications in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, beverage, and food industries. For instance, modified atmospheric packing employs moisture regulators and ethylene or oxygen absorbers for keeping food fresh.
Another kind of active packaging releases antibacterial agents to prevent bacteria in the product.
6. Customized Packaging
The product’s appearance plays an essential role in attracting potential buyers. Therefore, the packaging is as important as the product itself, as it is a brands’ essential marketing tool. Making the unpacking experience more unique and personalized for a lasting effect so that consumers buy the product repeatedly from a brand is necessary.
7. Recyclable Packaging
With different governments of different countries imposing a ban on single-use plastic, Jadek Printing and other packing companies need to look for materials apart from plastic for packing products to comply with the rules. Adopting sustainable packaging continues to be a problem for many companies, but using recyclable materials is one such packing trend that helps companies adopt circular packing practices.
For instance, post-consumer reins are a recyclable packing material that is derived from waste produced by consuming products. In addition, startups have developed mono-material packing instead of multi-layer packing as mono-material can be recycled easily.
8. Edible Packaging
Packaging usually follows the use of the model, significantly contributing to solid waste production, ending in water streams or landfill sites. That is why consumers and brands are shifting towards sustainable packaging over the past ten years. Businesses face the challenge of using packaging which eliminates or reduces solid waste.
Edible packaging is a packaging industry trend that reduces the production of waste. An excellent example of edible packaging is packaging made up of milk protein which is employed as casein film around foods. These films keep the food fresh and much better than plastic. Also, startups manufacturing edible straws, spoons, and other cutlery products provide restaurants, ice cream parlors, and cafes with edible packaging.
9. 3D printing
The three-dimensional packaging trend is innovative, letting companies build various prototypes and develop their packing almost in real-time. Businesses often experiment with costly and time-consuming packing designs that produce waste.
The three-dimensional printing also helps prepare tailor-made packaging without contributing to plastic waste.
10. Unique Kraft Packaging
With new trends coming into the industry, the kraft of unique design, shape, fixture option, creative lock, etc., are booming as people tend more toward creativity. The R&D department of manufacturers all around the world is now working on this aspect as big brands are in search of unique creative packaging options. This concept best suits the gift packaging industry.
Conclusion:
With multiple options available, one must go with the idea according to their industry nature. For example, if you are in a food packaging industry, you choose according to that. Like your packaging must be eco-friendly, food-grade, can preserve the food perfectly, do not leak, and with perfect printed details. This industry-wise selection will help you excel in your mainstream sector. For any big or small brand, the packaging is a key factor in sales and marketing and ultimately leads to increased turnover. So, whatever you select, make it suitable for your product and as per the latest trend of the industry. As the famous saying goes by Steve Jobs:
“A hen’s egg is, quite simply, a work of art, a masterpiece of design and construction with, it has to be said, brilliant packaging!”