From Aspiration to Execution: Insights from SPC Impact 2026

Pregis is a proud member of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC), a trademark project of GreenBlue, a nonprofit focused on driving industry collaboration and innovation in sustainable packaging. At SPC Impact 2026, Pregis joined industry stakeholders to explore how evolving regulations, cost pressures and recyclability expectations are influencing packaging strategy.

Conversations throughout the event reflected a broader shift across the industry: sustainability efforts are increasingly defined by performance, data and regulatory certainty rather than aspiration alone. These takeaways, reinforced by SPC’s 2026 Sustainable Packaging Trends Report, highlight how packaging decisions are changing and why it matters.

Packaging strategy has entered a more pragmatic phase. Regulatory ambiguity, labeling scrutiny and margin pressures are reshaping how sustainable packaging decisions are made. The focus has shifted from symbolism to certainty, forcing harder questions about what materials can be used, what claims can be supported and what designs can lower exposure rather than create it.

Sustainable packaging is increasingly defined by how materials perform through collection, sortation and reprocessing systems, not by intent or material perception alone. As Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and related policies accelerate across regions, compliance has become the baseline. The differentiator is what comes next: data-backed design decisions, harmonized definitions of recyclability and systems‑level strategies that can withstand regulatory and economic pressure over time.

EPR Is Driving Caution More Than Clarity

Extended Producer Responsibility continues to influence packaging strategy, but conversations at SPC Impact 2026 reflected ongoing uncertainty. While EPR policies are expanding across states, differences in definitions, reporting expectations and implementation timelines are limiting confidence in material and format decisions. In practice, this has introduced the risk of de facto market constraints when embedded recyclability or recovery thresholds cannot be met.

Nearly five years into EPR being proposed across multiple regions, companies have moved beyond awareness and into active interpretation. This has reinforced a more conservative approach to packaging, prioritizing flexibility and designs that can adapt across fragmented regulatory landscapes.

Compostables and Alternative Materials Face Adoption Headwinds

Confidence in compostables and some alternative materials is becoming more cautious, particularly in California, where unresolved EPR implementation details, limited processing infrastructure and unclear financial incentives continue to complicate adoption. Without consistent policy signals and reliable end markets, the business case for these formats has become challenging.

Even in food packaging, where compostables are positioned as a leading solution, risk reassessment is underway. Packaging formats that cannot demonstrate viable recovery pathways are increasingly exposed, regardless of material category. As a result, material choice alone is no longer a proxy for sustainability. Performance is now judged by whether functional systems exist to support recovery at scale.

Coated Paper Remains Attractive and Risky

Coated paper continues to attract attention as brands pursue plastic reduction strategies and respond to consumer expectations. At the same time, regulatory scrutiny is intensifying.

California’s SB 343 has raised the bar for recyclability claims, restricting them to materials that can demonstrate widespread collection, sortation and processing across the state. For coated paper, that evidentiary threshold is not universally met, creating real compliance and labeling exposure.

The implication is clear: material substitution alone does not ensure regulatory certainty. Recyclability claims must now be supported by credible, system level data and packaging strategies must be designed to withstand regulatory examination, not just align with perceived sustainability preferences.

Paperization and Rightsizing Continue to Accelerate

While some material shifts are slowing under regulatory pressure, others are advancing rapidly. Paperization, combined with rightsizing, such as shifting from rigid to flexible pouches, reducing dimensions or moving from box to mailers, has emerged as a default strategy across many categories.

Brands are simplifying packaging structures, reducing excess material and optimizing pack sizes to lower freight costs, EPR fees and waste. These moves are less about headline sustainability wins and more about operational efficiency and financial resilience. With EPR programs expected to drive higher fees for difficult‑to‑recycle materials, reduction and simplification remain among the most immediate and controllable levers available.

Eliminating what is unnecessary is proving to be one of the most reliable ways to reduce both cost and risk.

Automation and AI Adoption Is Increasing

Cost pressures and labor constraints are accelerating the adoption of automation and AI across packaging operations. More sophisticated tools are being deployed to improve consistency, reduce material waste and minimize reliance on manual processes.

These technologies support more precise decision making, from material optimization to quality control, reinforcing a broader shift toward performance‑driven sustainability. As data requirements increase under EPR, measurement has become inseparable from execution: what gets measured gets managed and ultimately recovered.

Packaging Systems Design Is Gaining Executive Attention

Packaging systems design is no longer operating behind the scenes. It is gaining visibility at the leadership level, recognized for its role in managing cost, regulatory exposure and supply chain risk.

Rather than treating packaging decisions in isolation, organizations are increasingly aligning design, policy readiness, recovery infrastructure and data strategy. This systems level approach reflects a growing understanding that long‑term progress depends on how these elements work together, not independently.

Bottom Line

SPC Impact 2026 made one point clear: sustainable packaging has entered an execution era.

Regulatory certainty, cost control and demonstrated recyclability performance are now taking precedence over experimentation and aspiration. Compliance may set the floor, but system level performance will define leadership. The organizations best positioned for what comes next are designing packaging not just to meet today’s rules but to function across evolving systems tomorrow.

To dive deeper, connect with the Pregis Sustainability Team by clicking  here.