Poll claims companies worried about future packaging materials shortages

Packaging professionals view shortages of packaging products and materials as the key challenge likely to be faced by the industry in the future, according to a recent survey of industry leaders at October’s SPC Advance 2025 event in Boston, hosted by the Sustainable Packaging Coalition.

The poll was conducted by United Kingdom-based packaging sustainability consultancy Aura and included experts from a range of United States and global brands and retailers. The survey claims 75 percent of respondents see material shortages as the primary issue for the packaging industry in the future—a 15 percent increase from a similar poll that ran six months prior at the SPC Impact event in Seattle.

“Resource scarcity is a growing concern for the packaging sector and industry professionals are right to be worried,” says Gillian Garside-Wight, Aura’s director of consulting. “Access to daily essentials and critical materials like water, food, fiber and fossil-fuel derived polymers are likely to be severely constrained in years to come.”

Garside-Wight adds that the world could see a shift towards brands and retailers using the materials that are the most readily available rather than those that are the most suitable for a particular product.

The poll also claims that the concern over shortages was closely followed by the need for data to monitor climate change and emissions (69 percent), with geopolitical trade issues (67 percent) coming next.

Aura says nearly two-thirds of industry professionals (63 percent) said they currently have no clear vision for what the landscape to 2050 will look like—an increase from the 52 percent reported in the previous poll.

When asked about the main potential opportunities for the future of sustainable packaging, Aura claims more than 92 percent said innovation in materials likely would be the biggest opportunity in the coming years leading up to 2050, followed by “dynamic recycling infrastructures” (78 percent) and advances in artificial intelligence and digital technologies (72 percent).

“Material shortages, the lack of climate change and emission data and geopolitical trade issues will be compounded by regulations like EPR [extended producer responsibility] becoming ever more stringent,” Garside-Wight says. “Brands and retailers are heading into a perfect storm with no clear vision of what the coming years to 2050 will hold.

“What’s evident is that future brand success comes from laying the groundwork now, and we’ve seen that many businesses are investing their time and efforts now to secure a successful future. This means tracking real-time data on granular packaging specifications, accurately calculating carbon emissions and circular solutions, plus availability of raw materials, including recycled materials.”

Global resource scarcity is one of four potential futures highlighted by Aura’s “Future Packaging Scenarios Report,” a study into the key factors that likely are to impact packaging needs and demands in the coming decades. The firm says the other three scenarios focus on an evolution of today’s challenges, a high-tech future and a pushback against technology.