Packaging Gateway Excellence Awards 2023 – Winners Announced!

The Packaging Gateway Excellence AwardsWinners have been announced! To see the full list you can download the full 70+ page report from the following link

The Excellence Awards celebrate the greatest achievements and innovations in the industry. The programme provides a platform to recognize the people and companies that are driving change.

Our program is designed to highlight excellence within the sector by looking at a range of corporate activities including deals, business projects and company initiatives, both internal and in the community.

Ardagh Group

Ardagh Group is a metal and glass packaging producer recognized for Business Expansion, Innovation and Investments.

ePac Flexible Packaging

ePac Flexible Packaging is a packaging provider recognized for Business Expansion, Innovation and Product Launches.

Henkel

Henkel is a manufacturer of adhesives, sealants and coatings and is recognized for Product Launches and Research and Development.

Smurfit Kappa

Smurfit Kappa is a paper packaging provider and recognized for Environmental, Innovation and Investments.

The research for the 2023 Packaging Gateway Excellence Awards has highlighted the increasing focus that companies are putting on making their products either more recyclable or biodegradable, and the industry is clearly taking note of consumer trends towards sustainable products.

While several companies are making the step of increasing the amount of recycled plastic in their new products, the bigger trend is towards removing it all together and developing replacements.

Bio-based alternatives are a source of great interest, and a lot of RnD spend is being invested into the search for materials that have the structural and barrier and protective qualities of plastic, without either the emissions to produce them or the environmental impact of their long decomposition.

Whether such materials can be produced efficiently at scale, without unforeseen environmental impact remains to be seen, but its is clear that alternatives to traditional plastic are seen as a vital

Whether such materials can be produced efficiently at scale, without unforeseen environmental impact remains to be seen, but its is clear that alternatives to traditional plastic are seen as a vital part of the future packaging landscape.

While the hunt for new materials goes on, paper packaging is having something of a renaissance, with manufacturers seeing it as something eco-conscious consumers are more accepting of.

New innovations in coatings mean that traditional problems with barrier qualities and waterproofing are less of an issue, opening up the materials for use in a wider range of situations.

The fact that paper and card can also be easily recycled in most municipal recycling streams is a huge advantage.

Even where such options are unavailable or unreliable, the fact that such products are inherently bio-degradable gives them a huge marketing advantage over plastics.

Even paper though has some drawbacks when it comes to sourcing, and consumers are increasingly looking to companies to restrict their use of virgin materials in favour of recycled ones.

During the research we have seen several Innovations in plastic recycling that are making this easier to achieve than ever before.

Even the source of the recycled material can be a signifier to consumers of a company’s commitment to reducing environmental impact. The reuse of plastic recovered from the ocean being the most obvious example and several companies have enacted schemes to reclaim and reuse such materials.

Finally, there is also a clear trend towards simplifying packaging to encourage recycling. This can be through the use of mono-materials in product design or stripping out elements like unnecessary blisters.

We hope our Excellence Awards Report not only provides recognition to those companies at the cutting edge of the industry but also provides a useful snapshot of the industry’s current state.

Congratulations to all our winners.

Our Awards Report contains:

• Introduction and Themes
• All Excellence and Category Winners
• Featured Winner Profiles
• Country Winner Breakdown

You can download the full 80+ page report from the following link