Growth of the paper-based packaging industry

The paper-based packaging industry has seen a significant uplift in demand in 2020, we take a brief look at why.

• Demand for online shopping – it has reached record highs and is expected to reach just below 100 billion pounds in 2020 up a little over £23 billion since 2019
• Plans for the final Brexit – with uncertainty still surrounding this, businesses are planning for all eventualities
• Ongoing desire for sustainable packaging – businesses continue to evaluate their packaging streams and seek more environmentally approved ways of packaging and despatching product
• Lockdown 2.0 – this has forced customers online at the busiest retail time of the year
• Q4 – typically the peak period in the packaging industry

It’s all added up to something of a perfect storm and evidenced itself in a substantial uplift in demand for paper-based, including corrugated, packaging solutions.

Sustainability and Design

There had already been a considerable shift towards paper-based and corrugated packaging as the sustainability credentials and design capabilities became appreciated in a more mainstream way. No longer is corrugated the product for providing transit packaging, it is a material that is flexible in its constructional and aesthetic design and has the beauty of being made from recycled material and being 100% recycled, often with great ease for either commercial or domestic end users.



Ecommerce consumers

The ecommerce market was already predicting considerable growth during 2020. Throw in an unexpected set of circumstances where online became the only way to get many goods from high street retailers and the growth has been driven with even more vigour. Consumers are no longer wanting online goods delivered in swathes of non-recyclable, single use plastic. They want their goods in recyclable packaging and, if opening it can be a positive experience too, then they are more likely to choose that brand again.

Forward planning

Whether your forward planning has taken place, or whether it is something you are considering for the future, it is ever more important that the sustainability factor is considered when making your packaging decisions. Paper based solutions are proving time and time again that they offer tangible differences in terms of recyclability, reducing carbon footprints and finding new and innovative ways of packing products across a wide range of sectors, through the supply chain and to its final destination.

From heavy duty transit packaging to high quality gift packaging and lots of different solutions in between, there is little wonder that paper-based packaging solutions are enjoying such positive growth.