Top Takeaways: Sustainability in Packaging US 2026

In Chicago this year, Sustainability in Packaging (SUSTPAK) felt like it finally left the vision-board phase and entered the “show your work” era. Senior sustainability leaders and communications pros weren’t trading slogans; they were trading mechanisms, models and hard lessons about what actually works.

When AI walks into the lab

One of the sessions that stuck with me featured Nuha Siddiqui, CEO and Co-Founder of erthos, alongside Anne Bedarf, Director, Global Packaging & Plastics Sustainability at Colgate-Palmolive. They walked us through ZYA, erthos’ proprietary AI platform built to radically reduce the trial-and-error in sustainable materials development.

Instead of nudging formulations forever in the lab and hoping something sticks, ZYA helps teams quickly screen options, quantify performance and sustainability trade-offs, and zero in on the most promising recipes much earlier in the process. Their pilot with Colgate-Palmolive wasn’t framed as “AI magic,” but rather as a process upgrade. Faster early-stage screening, sharper formulation optimization and a big boost in cross-functional decision confidence because R&D, sustainability and business leaders could literally see the same trade-off picture.

The moderated Q&A got into why Colgate-Palmolive chose to co-design the approach, what surprised them in implementation and how they see AI-enabled materials development becoming part of standard operating procedure rather than an innovation side project. For anyone in sustainability or comms, it was a rare AI story you can take back to your CFO or CTO and say, “Here’s how this saves time, money and risk.”

“It’s their trash … but it’s your problem”

My own session was at the other end of the system: the consumer. At ERM MCA, we’ve spent about 20 years tracking how Americans feel about a whole host of people and planet topics, including recycling. The headline hasn’t changed much: people say they love recycling, believe it’s the least they can do for the environment, and feel better about the things they buy when they can toss the package in the recycling bin.

And yet, recycling rates remain stubbornly low, especially for flexible films. (Only 2% by some reports!) And now, new EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) laws are telling brands and producers to dramatically improve recovery in a very short window. In “It’s Their Trash … but it’s Your Problem. How to Engage Consumers and Turn EPR Into a Win,” I shared our latest insights and a framework any company can use to close that gap between attitudes and behavior. There’s zero chance EPR goals are met if we don’t get the consumer to pitch in.

The uncomfortable truth is that consumers expect companies to handle end-of-life, their faith in the system is shaky and when they don’t believe recycling works, both their behavior and their trust in brands suffer. When they do believe it works, they are more likely to do harder things and feel better about the brands they choose. That’s not a messaging footnote; it’s a strategic lever.

I presented a framework we developed with FFRA and FPA. This work may be centered around flexible plastics, but it holds true for all hard-to-recycle materials. It boiled down to this:

1. Clarify the language: We need consistent, industry-wide terminology for flexible films so people know what they are and what they’re not.
2. Educate with purpose: Help Americans identify flexible films and understand how to recycle them properly. Education must be clear, actionable and repeated.
3. Connect flexible film recycling with core values: We know most people feel a personal motivation to recycle, because they think of it as the right thing to do for the environment. Messaging around these values will help motivate them to learn how to do it right and to follow through.
4. Bridge the infrastructure gap: In-store drop-off is widely accessible and can serve as a stopgap solution to keep flexibles out of landfills until broader infrastructure catches up.

The conversations afterward suggested, with a bit of anxiety, that under EPR, “consumer confusion” isn’t just unfortunate, it’s expensive. And it is only going to get more expensive if recycling goals aren’t met.

Goodbye silver bullets, hello portfolios and proof

In the hallways, one big myth felt like it had finally been retired: the idea that one miracle material will save us. No one was pretending paper, biobased plastics, flexibles, reuseables or compostables could individually carry the whole system. Instead, people were talking like portfolio managers: the right material, for the right application, in the right market, with the right infrastructure and rules. And don’t forget about end markets. It was incredibly clear that without strong end markets, the best material in the world will still hit the landfill.

Layered onto that was an impatience with vague green claims. Leaders were comparing notes on LCAs, recyclability evidence, digital product passports and how to keep marketing out of trouble as regulations and their enforcement tighten up. For communications professionals, this is the new bar: stories backed by data, pilots and partnerships — not just aspiration.

The new brief for sustainability and comms

What Chicago made crystal clear to me is that senior sustainability leaders are now in the orchestration business. Your real job is stitching together upstream innovation (like AI-accelerated material design) with downstream reality (consumer behavior, EPR, brand risk, retailer demands) into systems that actually perform.

My fellow communications pros have it a bit different than in the past. We are no longer just narrating the journey; we are co-designing it. That means:

• Translating complex systems (AI in the lab, EPR mechanics, infrastructure constraints) into narratives that executives, employees and consumers can understand and act on.
• Treating confidence in recycling and recovery systems as a strategic asset, because belief that “this works” drives both behavior and brand trust.
• Getting involved early enough that the story matches the science, the operations and the legal reality.

I didn’t leave Chicago thinking we’d solved sustainable packaging. I left convinced that we’ve finally shifted from lofty dreams to specific, repeatable mechanisms like AI tools in the lab, redesigned packaging, clearer labels and instructions, EPR-smart systems and communication strategies built on evidence.

For those of us in sustainability and communications, that’s the kind of hard, accountable work that can actually change how the system behaves.