NASHVILLE, TN., April 23, 2026 — At SPC Impact 2026, the Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC) unveiled three major initiatives shaping the future of sustainable packaging: its annual Sustainable Packaging Trends Report, a new brief from the SPC Retailer Forum, and research to expand How2Recycle’s film label communications.
Taken together, the initiatives support system transformation, tactical sustainable packaging implementation, and consumer education to address the full arc of how packaging gets designed, sold, and recovered.
A framework for what’s next: 2026 Sustainable Packaging Trends Report
SPC’s annual Sustainable Packaging Trends Report plays a critical role in identifying industry shifts before they go mainstream — predicting market changes, popularizing terms like the “paperization” of packaging, and giving companies a shared language for the industry’s evolution. The Report helps companies understand the forces reshaping the industry and the power they have to shape what comes next.
This year’s report identifies four trends defining where the industry is headed across key pillars:
- Packaging Design: Regions are formalizing definitions of recyclability
- Innovation: Healthcare and OTC packaging are catching up to sustainability demands
- Policy: EPR is maturing toward industry-regulatory equilibrium
- Recovery: Data-sharing is creating recyclability clarity under EPR
Learn more about each trend in the full report.
Advancing tactical sustainable packaging solutions for private label products
During SPC Impact, SPC’s Retailer Forum launched its second project brief, inviting supplier solutions to some of the most persistent challenges in private label packaging. The Forum comprises members from some of the nation’s largest retailers, including companies like Amazon, Walmart, and Target.
In its inaugural project, the Forum received R&D submissions from suppliers to find truly sustainable flexible packaging films with low-barrier requirements. Now, the Forum is seeking submissions from suppliers for a new kind of bottle or container that supports Forum members’ private label source reduction goals while also remaining recyclable and/or reusable or using minimal virgin plastic or no plastic at all. Suppliers can learn more by reviewing the full brief.
New labels for new recovery pathways
SPC also released new research exploring how the How2Recycle label suite can evolve to reflect film collection pathways beyond retailer drop-off bins, such as municipal drop-off sites and emerging options like mail-back or subscription services.
Findings point toward a potential new label design that communicates both the material type in iconography and the appropriate recovery pathway. The updated label will continue to be refined and developed in the coming months.
The people leading our sustainable packaging future
The more than 800 attendees at the Sustainable Packaging Coalition’s flagship conference reflect a shared commitment to advancing circularity, even in the face of market and regulatory uncertainty, competing consumer priorities, and reduced incentives for ESG initiatives. Progress in sustainable packaging continues to move forward, driven by the practitioners dedicating their time, teams, and budget to the work.
“The industry isn’t short on ambition, and now, we’re starting to reap the rewards of the hard work people are putting in every day to advance sustainable design, consumer education, and material recovery,” said SPC Director Olga Kachook. “Systems change when independent actors — brands, suppliers, recyclers — all pull in the same direction, and that moment has finally arrived.”
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About The Sustainable Packaging Coalition
Launched in 2004, the Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC) is a membership-based project of GreenBlue that believes in the power of industry to create a sustainable, regenerative, and just packaging economy. As the leading authority on sustainable packaging, SPC drives industry action through industry-leading events, data-backed resources, expert-led education, and strategic collaboration opportunities. In these efforts, SPC has built a pre-competitive community that prioritizes sustainable packaging progress over any one organization’s agenda. Learn more at https://sustainablepackaging.org/
About GreenBlue
GreenBlue is an environmental nonprofit on a mission to accelerate the transition to a regenerative, just, and sustainable materials economy. GreenBlue is the parent nonprofit of projects, including the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, How2Recycle, and the Recycled Material Standard. Through these projects and their hundreds of members, GreenBlue strives to be the most reliable and accurate source of truth compelling the packaging value chain to construct environmentally regenerative, socially responsible systems. Learn more at https://greenblue.org/.
