What 2024 brought the packaging industry was a positive change for both product sales and the environment. This movement included a continued push by leading product brands to phase out plastics for more sustainable packaging solutions such as molded fiber.
CleanHub, an organization with a mission to end all plastic pollution, conducted a 2024 study on recycling attitudes of Americans. What they found was that 78% of respondents think brands are not doing enough to tackle plastic pollution. And 2025 promises that consumers will continue to use their buying power as a source of good for the environment – all of which is driving packaging material changes toward sustainable solutions such as molded fiber packaging from EnviroPAK.
Yes, there are a lot of changes happening, and expected to happen, in packaging for the good of brands and the environment. EnviroPAK’s molded fiber custom packaging is helping brands meet these shifts toward sustainable packaging, including overcoming some of the following challenges they may face in the upcoming year.
Packaging trends for 2025 and beyond.
1. Zero Waste Packaging
Zero Waste Packaging centers around the principle of reducing the environmental footprint of materials used in packaging. By leveraging resources that are reusable, recyclable, or biodegradable such as molded fiber, this approach minimizes packaging waste while also targeting larger environmental challenges such as pollution and natural resources depletion. EnviroPAK packaging utilizes “zero waste” molded fiber packaging that is compostable, biodegradable and recyclable. This green packaging solution is expected to be more attractive than ever in 2025 as companies are becoming even more focused on the reduction of their carbon footprints and strive to meet government regulations imposed on plastic packaging.
The zero waste packaging market is experiencing significant growth due to increasing awareness about the negative impact of packaging waste on the environment. This can be why the zero waste packaging market size is expected to grow to US $322.99 billion in 2025, compared to $294.57 billion in 2024, according to a report by Global NewsWire.
“Zero waste packaging is experiencing significant growth due to increasing awareness about the negative impact of packaging waste on the environment.”
Global NewsWire, 2025
2. Ensuring Supply Chain Reliability
As product brands prepare for handling current developments regarding higher tariffs on all imports from Canada, Mexico and China, one supply chain challenge will definitely include packaging. While the idea of passing on the added costs to consumers is a solution, “Inflation has made consumers increasingly price-conscious, and there’s a ceiling on how much more they’ll be willing to pay,” according to a recent article by Diginomica. They continue by stating “companies that can reconfigure supply chains without significantly increasing prices could gain a significant edge in the marketplace.” As a U.S.-based custom packaging supplier utilizing U.S. sourced packaging materials, EnviroPAK can help meet that reconfiguration strategy to ensure supply chain reliability.
3. Expansion of the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is a national policy approach that assigns producers responsibility for the end-of-life of products. This can include both financial responsibility and operational responsibility, EPR for packaging is gaining attention in the United States. To date four states have introduced EPR legislation for packaging in 2025 (Oregon will be the first state to officially start) and five EPR for packaging bills have passed in the U.S. and that figure is projected to grow in reach to every state in America. According to a January 2025 article on EPR in Packaging Dive,
“The real momentum with packaging-specific policymaking is poised to remain in the states, dominated by EPR discussions. Of more than 120 recycling-related state bills tracked in 2024 by the Association of Plastic Recyclers, the greatest number were related to various types of EPR programs.”
Packaging Dive, 2025
4. Changes to FTC Green Guides
While not legally binding regulations, the FTC Green Guides serve as national guidelines influencing what sustainability claims or disposal symbols can be printed on product packaging. According to a ThirdPartners article written in January 2025, What Brands Need to Know About the FTC’s Green Guides Update, they report that “many brands and manufacturers are concerned about the 2024 Green Guides update and implications for constructing product claims.”
What these changes could include is more clearly and accurately communicating the recyclability and sustainability of packaging and stricter guidelines on claims like “compostable” or “recyclable” to avoid misleading consumers. This is especially important considering that a study by research firm McKinsey & Company shows that 88% of Generation Z consumers don’t trust the environmental claims companies market.
5. Enforcement of Federal Plastics Registry
As Canada moves closer toward the goal of zero plastic waste by 2030, the Canadian Federal Plastics Registry is taking ambitious action to reduce plastic pollution. This includes helping Canadians move towards a circular economy through an evidence-based and comprehensive plan that addresses the entire lifecycle of plastics and to keep plastic out of the environment. While this is being imposed within Canada, it has a direct impact on American products since the quantity of plastic must be reported in packaging being imported, manufactured, and sold within the country.
6. Retailers Increase Demand for Sustainability in Packaging Design
It’s no secret that product brands are more focused than ever on the design of packaging with sustainability in mind. This is a result of pressures from both retailers and their consumers who are demanding products be more environmentally friendly.
According to leading design software company Adobe in their article, Five Trends in Packaging Design, “Sustainable packaging is almost becoming more of an expectation than a trend.” Sustainability is so important for retailers such as Walmart that this retail leader is even providing a Sustainable Packaging Playbook for their suppliers.
This glimpse into the upcoming year highlights some of the many packaging trends that also include reducing material through more minimal design, sustainable dyes for packaging colors as well as packaging supply chain reliability. EnviroPAK molded fiber custom packaging will be the choice of retailers, product brands, and consumers in 2025 and beyond as the reliable supplier of Made in America sustainable packaging – all utilizing biodegradable and compostable packaging materials sourced right here in America.
Contact EnviroPAK® to learn why custom molded fiber packaging is the positive, sustainable direction for retailers, product brands, consumers, and the environment. Our molded fiber packaging is made from 3,500 tons of recycled paper yearly. And it’s the ideal sustainable, biodegradable, and compostable solution to protect your products and your brand image with consumers.
