Consumers in the US currently value a pack’s cost, convenience, shelf life, and other factors over its sustainability, a McKinsey survey suggests – an outcome potentially driven by economic uncertainties, lifestyle changes, and gaps in knowledge.
In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical uncertainty, economic inflation, the ongoing energy crisis, and financial market volatility, the third round of McKinsey’s survey – building upon similar research conducted in 2020 and 2023 – seeks to examine changes in US consumer preferences and gauge the influence of environmental factors on their behaviour.
While its research spans across eleven countries and four continents, McKinsey highlights particular findings among consumers based in the United States.
Cost, convenience and quality
The survey indicates a growing emphasis on product price and quality over environmental implications, with over 70% of respondents describing these factors as a ‘very’ or ‘somewhat’ important consideration in their spending decisions. Around a third (44%) of consumers gave the same answers for environmental impact.
McKinsey suggests that such cost considerations could be influenced by economic inflation, while changing lifestyles could explain a growing emphasis on easy access and convenience.
Other factors crop up in certain product categories; for example, brand names can be indicative of a product’s quality or price, and therefore emerge as a consideration when purchasing beverages, beauty products, personal hygiene, and pet food.
Safety
Consumers are also demonstrating increasing concerns about food waste, as food safety (83%) and shelf life (75%) emerge as two of the strongest influences on packaging purchases overall. Once again, this line of thinking could trace back to an intent to maximize shelf life and justify the product price.
McKinsey considers this consistent with the findings of its previous surveys, but notes a generally dwindling interest in the appearance of a pack (40%) since its similar research from 2020 (51%). This has potential links with the popularity of e-commerce platforms, through which consumers can often view products without their packaging – negating its value as a marketing tool.
Conversely, factors like durability (59%), ease of use (61%), and on-label information (59%) remain high in the rankings. McKinsey points out that these could be considered a minimum standard for any pack, but acknowledges an increasing focus on label information over the past two years, which might reflect a growing interest in health and wellness.
Alternatively, it could be another extension of quality and price, especially as developing technology allows for more on-pack information about the product.
Overall, 44% of consumers considered environmental impact an ‘extremely’ or ‘very’ important packaging characteristic. This marks a decline from the 43% figure recorded prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, but an increase from the 40% result in 2023.
McKinsey also notes a growing disparity between the top five factors – food safety, shelf life, on-label information, ease of use, and durability – and the rest of the list. In 2025, the number of consumers that consider environmental impact ‘very’ important is 17 percentage points lower than those saying the same of durability, as opposed to an 8-point difference in 2020.
Recyclability
Within the sustainability category, recyclability emerges as the most important metric for US consumers. 77% consider it ‘extremely’ or ‘very’ important, followed by recycled content at 62%, compostability and reusability at 60%, and lightweight or less material at 59%.
The findings reveal that CO2 impact and biobased materials are not held in such high regard. McKinsey posits that these concepts and their environmental implications may be less clear to consumers, whereas recyclability and recycled content are well-established solutions to littering, pollution, and landfills.
Other than engaging in further consumer education, brands could target groups that already value the sustainability metric in question; McKinsey raises the example that 76% of high-income women in the Northeastern United States rate CO2 impact as a ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ important factor in their spending decisions, making low-CO2 designs a ‘strategic choice’ for this demographic.
Glass and paper
When asked which packaging materials they consider the most sustainable, 60% of respondents describe glass bottles or jars as ‘extremely’ or ‘very’ sustainable. 52% say the same of paper and cardboard – separately from paper-based liquid cartons, which only 35% rank highly – while 48% select metal or beverage cans.
Apparently, this aligns with the fact that glass, metal, and paper packaging achieve highest recycling rates and recycled content in the United States.
On the other hand, materials that are higher to recycle fall lower on the list; only 25% of respondents consider laminated packaging ‘extremely’ or ‘very’ sustainable, and plastic films come last with only 22% of consumers in favour.
McKinsey emphasizes the influence of technical versus actual recyclability on the survey’s results. For instance, only 33% of consumers are confident in the sustainability of PET bottles, despite their closed-loop recyclability – perhaps reflective of the 33% bottle collection rate in the United States.
On this note, McKinsey underlines the importance of considering collection and processing rates in the local market when designing and distributing packaging.
Brand owner responsibility
The fifth and final finding is that US consumers do not hold themselves or retailers responsible for sustainability in packaging, but instead brand owners and packaging producers. Only 10% of respondents took primary personal responsibility, whereas 70% pointed the finger at larger corporations.
Yet McKinsey also notes that less than 10% of participants could name a single packaging company when prompted. This might be interpreted as consumers avoiding the active responsibility of choosing the most environmentally sound packaging to purchase, potentially paying a premium for doing so, and undertaking the correct disposal method.
Alternatively, it may reflect a consumer perception that private brand owners are the biggest users of packaging and generators of packaging waste; and that, as such, they have the most responsibility to enforce better packaging practices.
How should the industry respond?
In light of these results, McKinsey encourages packaging industry players to develop a ‘granular’ understanding of consumer behaviours and preferences – their views on sustainability, their willingness to pay a premium, and how they use and dispose of packaging products – before making any decisions.
“Companies that make assumptions about consumer preferences in their packaging design labs likely incur a significantly larger risk of market failure,” it warns. “Optimal decisions for packaging may differ by product line and region, and this variance could justify more sector-specific tailoring of packaging than has previously been the industry standard.”
Consumer preferences should be foregrounded from the beginning of a launch or update, McKinsey asserts. Companies should take an ‘incremental and experimental approach’ that encompasses the whole supply chain, including brand owners and upstream raw materials suppliers, to find the best solution for their consumer demographics.
So, too, should consumer needs and preferences factor into a holistic packaging design. As the survey suggests, sustainability considerations are not always the top priority for consumers; factors like durability, shelf life, food safety, and convenience should also be considered in a successful product.
Additionally, McKinsey upfronts marketing and consumer education as essential measures. To compensate for gaps in knowledge, the company recommends that packaging companies tailor their marketing to educate both consumers and brands about the sustainability benefits of their packaging choices, and to pursue sustainability factors with strategic advantages in their market context.
This could have the knock-on effect of integrating environmental consciousness into a company’s branding, McKinsey suggests.
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