Some 6 months before the packaging and intralogistics "Capital Place" opens, the PACK EXPERTS Committee of the international packaging exhibition EMBALLAGE 2014 continues to reflect on the packaging of tomorrow and its added value.
Having gathered for a working session facilitated by Annette FREIDINGER-LEGAY, exhibition consultant, the opinions of the EMBALLAGE 2014 PACK EXPERTS Committee demonstrate that the packaging of tomorrow will be increasingly smart!*
The Committee also noted that creating added value must serve the product, brand, users/consumers and society in general.
What will the packaging of tomorrow look like?
Smart. in terms of design and functions
A package will not just be a container. It will be used on the move, calibrated to the precise dose, adapted for the intended use, have reliable ergonomics that enable the product to be fully used and remind us when to use it!
Smart. in terms of eco-design
Packaging will be more sustainable! The environmental impact of all the components will be known and limited, the package will have no impact on waste management since it will be sorted and wholly designed from recycled materials and its components will be reduced throughout the supply chain.
Even smarter and cleverer:
Safe and secure, inert as far as the contents are concerned, its entire life tracked, interactive, informative, educational, equipped with an information portal, packaging will enable 100% of the products packed to be used and optimum conservation of food to fight against waste. It will guarantee food safety and might even do without the cold chain. In the health sector, packaging will help patients comply better with their treatments while responding to hospital and pharmacists' demands. An e-commerce package will be mechanically convertible, depending on the content, and reusable in our everyday life.
What kind of added value for packaging?
Multidimensional added value to serve society at large!
Emotional added value is to be developed primarily for e-commerce shipping boxes, improved by the new printing technologies.
In the near future, the added value to be sought is to make packaging become an information portal for the product, the packaging and its life cycle. Depending on the wealth and precision of the information, consumers will be better informed and educated.
Eco-design can also generate added value, becoming a "shared value" in the sense of the circular economy. The PACK EXPERTS Committee aim to structure packaging in such a way that it fosters recyclability, making the separation and sorting process easier, and to use 100% recycled materials. The idea is also to design packaging with a view to its reuse, thus acquiring the status of an object to keep and/or use again in daily life, in other words to provide additional services and to slow down the process of becoming mere waste to be recycled.
The agenda has therefore been set for the packaging of tomorrow and its added value, supported by the powerful innovation prevalent in the sector. Packaging promises to surprise us every day!
