PACKAGING ADHESIVES AND SUSTAINABILITY Adhesives are a more or less invisible, but play an important part in quite literally holding packaging together. Elisabeth Skoda looks at the latest market developments and discusses recent trends and developments with H.B. Fuller and Bostik.
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ccording to a report by Mordor Intelligence, the global packaging adhesives market is expected to grow at with a CAGR greater than 5% between 2021 and 2026. This is mainly driven by a growing demand from the food and beverage industry. Asia-Pacific accounted for the biggest market share and is likely to continue dominating demand.
Trends and developments in the packaging adhesives space Mega trends like globalization, urbanization and digitalization have been impacting the way we live and work, and have challenged how products are designed, manufactured and consumed. With increasing consumer awareness, food safety concerns and product ingredient transparency, sustainability is here to stay. As part of this new reality, the main drivers we see in the food and beverage industry are firstly regulatory changes, primarily in Europe with the new Green Deal, ban on single-use plastics legislation and related guidelines impacting packaging; and secondly the impulse coming from brand owners themselves. In some cases, these are also heavily influenced by the consumers, putting pressure on brands via social media and through their purchasing choices,” explains Elizabeth Staab, Global Strategic marketing manager at H.B. Fuller. She identifies that within the sustainability area, the biggest trend is the avoidance or reduction of plastic as a packaging material, forcing many food and beverage producers to seek mainly fibre-based alternatives, i.e. paper and board. “These changes in packaging design and materials used lead to different adhesive requirements. The recyclability of the primary packaging material is essential, so adhesives need to be formulated to facilitate this recycling process. New materials such as paper straws or new designs such as multipack bundling, like KHS Nature MultiPackTM or GPI’s KeelClipTM, demand completely new solutions and developments to fulfil the requisites of the new packs,” adds Ms Staab.
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Wladimir Moraes, Global Market Director for Flexible Packaging - Bostik Advanced Packaging, agrees that the push towards design for circularity and recyclability has further intensified. “This key trend is shifting gears for all elements of packaging, including adhesives and sealants. Re-designing in mono-material structures to allow sorting and mechanical recycling remains an important drive for innovation and sustainability in flexible packaging. Therefore, there is a real need for adhesives that allow and even enable this. Adhesives can also play an important part in combatting food waste, as he points out. “We have observed a growing demand for our adhesives and systems for reclosable packaging, to reduce food waste and preserve resources.”
“Changes in packaging design and materials used lead to different adhesive requirements. The recyclability of the primary packaging material is essential, so adhesives need to be formulated to facilitate this recycling process. New materials such as paper straws or new designs such as multipack bundling demand completely new solutions and developments.” All this shows that adhesives are a key element in packaging and its sustainability, even though they are naturally almost invisible to consumers. Mr Moraes highlights the example of mechanical recycling of multilayer flexible structures, where the right adhesive can provide safety for consumers and the required performance for food protection, while not impacting the quality of the recyclate.
