A survey led by the German Packaging Institute reveals widespread consumer expectations for recyclable packaging, the value they place on hygienic formats, and their misconceptions about material recycling rates and efficiencies.
Since 2015, the German Packaging Institute has published the results of a survey to celebrate Packaging Day (11 June) and raise public awareness of packaging.
Other contributors in 2026 included Aluminium Deutschland, Flexible Packaging Europe, Die Papierindustrie, Bundesverband Glasindustrie, Industrievereinigung Kunststoffverpackungen, Die Wellpappenindustrie, Verband Metallverpackungen, Allianz Verpackung und Umwelt, DFTA Flexodruck Fachverband, Fachverband Faltschachtel-Industrie, and Industrieverband Papier- und Folienverpackungen.
This year’s survey focused on thirteen expectations that packaging is expected to meet in everyday life.
Respondents were asked to rank their personal top five priorities in a packaging design. Most pointed to hygiene (37.6%), ease of opening, use and resealing (33.1%), protecting the product from damage (32.6%) and extending its shelf life (32.1%).
Yet the broader public expectations of packaging yielded different results. Recyclability was the top result among all thirteen functions and attributes featured in the survey, with almost half (48%) of all respondents considering it one of the five most important expectations of packaging.
This was followed by the efficient use of packaging materials (40.3%). Other sustainability-related priorities to reach the overall top five included minimizing the environmental impact (36.1%) and, where environmentally and practically appropriate, reusability (33.3%).
“The results clearly show that sustainability and the circular economy remain highly important to people in Germany,” commented Dr Natalie Brandenburg, managing director at the German Packaging Institute. “Packaging has traditionally played a prominent role in this context because it is something we use and interact with every day.
“The fact that four of the five most important expectations relate to sustainability and the circular economy sends a strong message. At the same time, consumers recognize the essential role packaging plays in protecting products and ensuring hygiene and safety. These findings confirm that packaging continues to have a clear mandate in fulfilling these core functions.”
When asked how well packaging fulfils its functions and meets everyday expectations, the highest satisfaction scores went to hygiene, with 81.7% of respondents rating performance as good or very good. Other responses included protecting products from damage (78.1%) and extending shelf life (70.3%).
Almost seven in ten respondents said that packaging provides them with good or very good information (69.6%) and helps them identify products on the shelf when shopping (68.3%).
“Only a slim majority of respondents (52.5%) rate the ease of opening, use and resealing as good or very good,” Brandenburg continued. “While just 12.9% consider packaging to perform poorly or very poorly in this regard, that still falls short of our industry’s ambitions. Effective solutions already exist, but they may need to be adopted more consistently.
“Only 35.6% of respondents rate the efficient use of packaging materials as good or very good. This is the lowest score among all 13 aspects and is genuinely concerning, because the reality is quite different.
“Today, significantly less material and fewer resources are required to package products than in the past. As an industry, we need to communicate this progress much more clearly.”
Over two-thirds of respondents were found to underestimate the proportion of collected and recycled packaging. Only 31.2% correctly estimated that glass packaging has exceeded a recycling rate of 80% – reportedly reaching 82.9% in 2024.
Similarly, 31.2% of respondents correctly suggested that paper, paperboard, and board had exceeded a figure of 80% after the materials recorded a 91.8% recycling rate in 2024. Metal packaging was also underestimated, with 83.4% of respondents believing that the recycling rate is lower than 80%, when the material is said to have the highest recycling rate overall.
67.5% of respondents assumed that plastic packaging had not exceeded a recycling rate of 60%, despite figures indicating that it had reached 70.8% in 2024. Another 70.7% did not think that composite packaging had reached the same threshold, when its recorded recycling rate stands at 69.5%.
“People in Germany can be proud of what they achieve through the responsible disposal of packaging,” said Brandenburg. “The high recycling rates we attain are only possible because consumers separate and dispose of their packaging correctly after use.”
Respondents were asked whether more or less material is required to package a product today compared to ten, twenty, or thirty years ago. Only 18.2% answered correctly, with the survey citing statistics from the Gesellschaft für Verpackungsmarktforschung that material use per packaged product fell by 17.0% for paper-based packaging, 38.5% for aluminium, 6.9% for glass and 76.9% for plastic between 1990 and 2020.
“For Packaging Day 2022, we not only compared the total volume of packaging materials used and packaged products, but also examined specific examples,” Brandenburg explained.
“An aluminium tray for 100 grams of cat food, for example, required 29% less material in 2020 than in 1991. A wine bottle was produced using 23.5% less glass, while a plastic toothpaste tube required 18.9% less material. And the innovations continue.
“Companies are also becoming increasingly efficient in their use of energy and water. As consumers, we often remember the occasional negative example or the small item delivered in an oversized shipping box. The overall picture, however, is different: while the number of products continues to grow, the amount of packaging required per product continues to decline.”
Respondents were also asked whether a product or its packaging resulted in a larger environmental footprint. Only 19.5% answered correctly: the German Packaging Institute suggests that, on average, packaging has a ‘substantially’ smaller environmental footprint than the product it protects.
By contrast, 41.3% of respondents thought that packaging has the larger footprint, whereas 31.2% suggested that both environmental impacts were roughly the same.
“On average, only 3.0 to 3.5% of the environmental impact of packaged food is attributable to the packaging,” Brandenburg stated. “Our products contain many valuable raw materials, energy, water and other resources. These are ecological and economic assets that must be safeguarded.
“Packaging performs this task with comparatively little resource input. Many people are unaware of this relationship. Yet the greatest environmental and economic losses occur when products are damaged or spoil before they can be used. Packaging helps prevent exactly that.”
Commenting on the study as a whole, Brandenburg concluded: “We often only notice packaging once it has already fulfilled its purpose. Yet without packaging there would be no transport, no storage and no reliable supply chains.
“The safe delivery of food, medicines, industrial goods and raw materials, as well as the sustainable use of resources, all depend on effective packaging. That is why, as an association community, we are committed to promoting the value and importance of the packaging industry across all materials. Packaging is part of the future. And the future needs people who are willing to shape it.”
In other news, a previous survey by Pro Carton found that the cost of living was the top factor influencing consumer behaviour, with 66% of respondents highlighting their concerns. This marked the first time in the survey’s history that cost was named as a more influential factor than climate change (62%).
Since then, Mondi’s annual e-commerce trend report has found that packaging is becoming a deciding factor in repeat purchases of a product. It also emphasizes that AI is changing how consumers buy, and that evolving digital behaviour is placing new demands on physical packaging.
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