Our biggest Sustainable Packaging Summit to date was attended by 854 delegates, 142 speakers, and 89 exhibitors – a new record! It was also our most internationally diverse event so far, with attendees hailing from countries as far as the United States, China, India, Brazil, and Ethiopia.
Knowledge was exchanged, and partnerships formed, between industry players from different countries and even continents. Important topics were tackled, from widespread regulation all the way to specific packaging formats and technologies. Some attendees even stayed an extra day for guided tours of Heineken’s bottling plant and PreZero’s waste sorting centre in Zwolle.
For anyone who missed it – or attendees looking for a refresher – here is a rundown of the key moments at this year’s Summit.
Policymakers speak out
On the Main Stage, European Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy Jessika Roswall sat on a panel with some of the big names in FMCG – Juan Manuel Banez-Romero from Amazon; Massimiliano di Domenico from Mondelēz; Hans von Bochove from Heineken; Francesca Stevens from Europen; and Yoni Shirnan from Systemiq.
Together, the panellists discussed the geopolitical and macroeconomic landscape of Europe in 2025 – increasing global protectionism, growing deindustrialization, and declining ambition as major players miss their earliest deadlines for sustainability goals – and asked what is being done on a legislative scale to overcome these problems.
Most notably, Roswall agreed that Europe’s rate of circularity, which she placed at only 12% so far, must increase. She asserted that European industries and citizens would have a voice in the ongoing development of legal solutions, including potential revisions to the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation in an upcoming omnibus.
“We need resources to put into wealth, not waste,” Roswall said. “Use entrepreneurship and innovation to strengthen Europe.”
Another Commissioner to join us at the Summit was policy officer Wolfgang Trunk. He spoke to Bruno Van Gompel from VGV Management Services, Gerald Rebitzer from Amcor, Michelle Norman from Suntory, Graham Houlder from CEFLEX, EXPRA’s Joachim Quoden, and SAP’s Darren West to answer the question: is regulation setting circularity up to succeed, or to fail?
As Von Gompel illustrated, Europe is on its way to losing one million tons of recycling capacity by the end of the year. The growth rate for recycling capacity is apparently at its lowest since 2017, while recycled content levels are “about half” of the level they should be after twenty years of recycling operations.
In that context, Houlder pushed for clear confirmation that the upcoming omnibus amendments would not move the goalposts set out for August 2026 in the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation – which was met with a round of applause from the audience.
Trunk responded by confirming that the Commission has no plans to alter these short-term deadlines.
“We are fully committed to do the best we can for these [targets] to [come] true,” he continued, “and therefore we reassure you that the omnibus will only be the start of the negotiations and co-decision procedure.”
Sustainability Awards
During Tuesday evening’s networking party – complete with food, drink, a live band, and some impressive dance moves – the winners of the Sustainability Awards were announced. Among them was our first-ever Overall Winner from Africa, Zafree Papers!
“I’m incredibly honoured to win the Overall Winner award!” said founder and CEO Bethelhem Dejane in a subsequent panel. “This reflects that innovation can come from anywhere and have global relevance. Real change has to start with the materials we choose, and where they come from.”
Fredric Petit, partner at Emerald Technology Ventures and friend of Packaging Europe, also received a crystal trophy in the Outstanding Contribution category.
“Wow, what a surprise and what an honour to win the Outstanding Contribution award at the Sustainability Awards,” he responded on LinkedIn. “Thank you my dear fellow jury members for your vote of trust which I proudly share with my great colleagues at Emerald Technology Ventures.
“Together we drive collaborative innovation between corporates and start-ups for more profitable and sustainable change.”
Other winners include:
- Best Practice – Sonoco for its smart, recyclable food cans for FareShare charity donations
- Climate – Ardagh Glass Packaging for its hydrogen electrolyzer for melting glass
- Driving the Circular Economy – Procter & Gamble for its VersoVita solvent-based dissolution recycling technology
- E-Commerce – Xampla and Just Eat Takeaway for their plastic-free, Morro-coated food-to-go box
- Recyclable Packaging – Blue Ocean Closures for its fibre-based closure for nutraceutical supplements
- Renewable Materials – Zafree Papers and 100+ Accelerator for their tree-free, unbleached pulp and kraft liner
- Machinery – SIPA for its XFORM RENEW direct flake-to-preform technology
- Pre-Commercialized Climate – Avery Dennison for its Vidre+ smart label for fresh produce
- Pre-Commercialized Driving the Circular Economy – Klingenberg’s Nomadbox reusable shipping carton
- Pre-Commercialized Recyclable Packaging – Papacks for its moulded fibre, cellulose-based Fiber-Bottle
- Pre-Commercialized Renewables – Ecohelix for its WOODMER Seal biopolymer heat seal coating
- Readers’ Award – Mondi for its recyclable paper wrapping for mattresses, vacuum sealable and running on existing lines
Your thoughts
Without spoiling the contents of our upcoming Sustainability Report, the Packaging Europe team took note of the thoughts and feelings expressed by attendees this year.
One of the key concerns from the outset was regulatory uncertainty. An audience poll undertaken during Commissioner Roswall’s panel revealed that a lack of clarity or certainty in regulation, cost concerns (including tariffs), and insufficient data were the factors holding businesses back in their sustainable transition.
“Utrecht wasn’t about trends but tension,” Smurfit Westrock’s Lisa Cain summarized. “Between regulation and reality. Between ambition and infrastructure. Between what the system needs and what business culture still protects.”
She went on to give brands the choice to embrace complexity as a “competitive edge” or face the consequences later: “The winners will be the ones who turn regulation into muscle. The ones who plan for 2038 and 2045 instead of 2030. Because compliance is no longer the goal. It’s the entry ticket.”
These concerns extend beyond Europe, too. From an Australian perspective, Ball & Doggett’s Zaidee Jackson commented: “Our own state-by-state divergence risks fracturing progress. National harmonisation in data architecture, definitions, labelling, and EPR is the cornerstone of a functioning circular system.
“We must treat our packaging reforms as system-wide transformations, aligning policy, infrastructure, and investment to enable business confidence and measurable progress.”
On the ground, our delegates described sustainability in one word. Results included challenge, overdue, opportunity, partnerships, circularity, and the future. Joseph Caruso from EFI also expressed his optimism about all the new, energetic voices speaking up about sustainability at this year’s Summit.
On the final day, we ran a poll consulting attendees about their feelings on the future of packaging – and we were glad to see so many responses in the vein of ‘inspired’, ‘hopeful’ and ‘optimistic’.
Speaking at the end of the Summit, Packaging Europe brand director Tim Sykes summarized: “One of my takeaways from listening to speakers is: it’s pretty clear that boardrooms aren’t going to be the main drivers of sustainability. But we do have over 900 people at this event. That’s something we can mobilize.
“There are a lot of headwinds in industry and geopolitics, and doubts about whether business is as committed to some of its pledges as it was a few years ago – but seeing so many people come to an event like this is an encouraging sign for the industry.”
Looking for a detailed, day-by-day rundown of the event? Check out our rolling coverage of the Sustainable Packaging Summit, written live from the show floor.
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