“Our industry has changed more in the past two years than in the past 32 that I’ve worked in packaging,” GreenBlue Executive Director Paul Nowak said during SPC Advance 2025. 

Sustainable packaging professionals aren’t just witnessing this transformation, they’re architecting it. At SPC Advance, we saw a wealth of ways — from composting access data to recycled content claim research — that these experts are using to move us closer to a world where packaging systems help, don’t hurt, human and environmental health.

During three days of sessions, socials, and workshops, one thing became abundantly clear: The sustainable packaging industry is already mobilized. Now, the question becomes: How can we use this momentum to get it right? 

An Object in Motion

Is corporate sustainability dead? Andrew Winston, author of Net Positive, would say no. Despite headlines of companies hiding or nixing their sustainability goals, the trends moving sustainable packaging forward are bigger than reactionary politics, he said at SPC Advance. “The reason companies are responding to climate change is because climate change is happening.” 

Change happens slowly at first, and then, seemingly suddenly, it’s exponential. To demonstrate this, he cited two very different technologies: CD-ROMs and clean energy. “We used to all have CDs, and then suddenly overnight, everything was digitized… Now, clean tech is growing exponentially, and the fundamental reason is that it’s cheaper.”

Anti-ESG backlash may dominate headlines, but it’s not going anywhere because the fundamentals remain the same: the world is moving to decarbonize and scale sustainable materials. Consumer norms and values are shifting, and companies are acting because they must.

During the event, Project Drawdown’s Dr. Jonathan Foley reminded us that momentum alone isn’t enough. It’s not just about cleaning up the mess of carbon emissions and material waste. “If your tub is overflowing, you wouldn’t start by grabbing a sponge,” he said. “You’d turn off the tap.”

Therein lies the greatest opportunity for an industry already in motion.

The Path Forward Starts with Perspective…

During her presentation on the history of Black Americans in Boston, Dr. Noelle Trent shared the powerful story behind the construction of the city’s African Meeting House. “When I look at the floorboards of the Meeting House, I don’t just see floorboards,” she said. “I see the people who had so little time and money to give … And with what little they had, they gave for a future that they would not see.”

That same spirit rings true in sustainability today. We need to build systems for a world we won’t necessarily work in, one that we want future generations to live and thrive in. 

To change these systems and combat the twin crises of climate change and waste, we can start by getting some perspective — by looking beyond our own communities. In our sessions with the Intersectional Environmentalist’s Diandra Marizet Esparza and The Recycling Partnership’s Jessica Levine, we were reminded that initiatives must be culturally relevant and inclusive in order to scale — because a solution that doesn’t work across a diversity of communities isn’t truly sustainable.

We also saw real-world examples of how this perspective informs action, with SPC sharing research on new composting access and consumer attitudes toward recycled content. And we can even look to examples within our industry for added perspective. That’s where the experts on UK and European producer responsibility, Robbie Staniforth and James Piper, came into play. Together, the two highlighted lessons from 30 years of producer responsibility across the pond, where rushed eco-modulation fee structures, end-market uncertainty, and overly complex rules created challenges. Their message to attendees: anticipate and avoid these pitfalls before they hinder the potential of EPR implementation here.

…It Continues with Good Policy…

Ask anyone who was at SPC Advance and they’ll tell you that policy is reshaping our industry in real time. But while most attendees are responding to these changes, a few experts are actively shaping them. At SPC Advance, we got to hear from these experts in sessions featuring CalRecycle’s Karen Kayfetz and Circular Action Alliance’s Shane Buckingham.

During the event, Kayfetz explained CalRecycle’s role in implementing — not making — laws. She unpacked the agency’s rigorous material categorization process, which they approach systematically, transparently, and with an open mind.

“If you find that you have data that is a little bit different than what the department has… show us what you did, how you did it, because we may be able to have a conversation about revisiting the classification for those categories,” she said.

Circular Action Alliance’s Shane Buckingham complemented this perspective, highlighting the methodology behind eco-modulation structures in our nation’s earliest EPR systems. Buckingham emphasized the Producer Responsibility Organization’s (PRO) efforts to standardize fee structures across states, and the role that these fees will play in strengthening recycling ecosystems and environmental outcomes. 

“We want to ensure that we’re designing for recyclability, we’re designing for reducing impact,” Buckingham said. “Because at the end of the day, if we can improve the input into the recycling system, we can optimize the entire system.”

…And it Hinges on Innovation

During SPC Advance, SPC Director Olga Kachook made the case for a re-frame on how we consider eco-modulation within EPR programs. “How can we think of EPR not as a burden, but as an innovation catalyst? … What if we dropped the stick (fees), and thought of EPR as an innovation carrot?” she asked. 

The fees avoided through sustainable design could fund R&D, material innovation, and even consumer education — helping close the gap where confusion about recycling and recycled content remains high, she said. Eco-modulation could spark a virtuous cycle: Innovations toward sustainability could create EPR savings that can be reinvested to accelerate systemic change. 

We weren’t afraid to get into the weeds on packaging innovations at SPC Advance. In one session, Marks’ Jose Padilla showed how material swaps can eliminate tons of waste, highlighting the effort to redesign packaging for CVS Health’s largest thermometer SKU with fully recyclable paper. We didn’t shy away from moonshots, either. During SPC Advance, Google’s Rey Banatao showed us the Mattera platform, which uses advanced sensors, chemistry, and AI to sort and analyze packaging at the molecular level. The technology could mark a huge leap forward for recycling rates, material recovery, and strengthened reprocessing.

An Industry Mobilized: Turning Momentum into Meaningful Action

The industry is mobilized, but movement alone doesn’t guarantee we’ll get to the right destination. During this watershed moment, in order to get it right, we need to:

• Act with urgency, even when the path forward isn’t perfect.
• Do the research — learn from history, culture, and our global peers.
• Get ahead of policy: equip your team with scientifically rigorous data and shape the future rather than just react to it. 
• Treat EPR as a catalyst for moonshot innovations.

“It’s not easy work, but together, it’s inevitable that we’ll get there.” – SPC Director Olga Kachook. 

Become an SPC member today, or join a Collaborative to get the most out of your membership.