The coronavirus pandemic has had a huge global impact on many businesses throughout the world. The packaging industry is no exception. So how has the industry responded to the Covid-19 crisis and what are the implications both short-term and long-term?
From the beginning of the crisis, the packaging industry responded immediately to global demands, whether it be food packaging or e-commerce packaging to cope with the overwhelming demand for online orders.
Supply and demand were short term effects of the pandemic from day one. Reduced availability of ethanol and n-propanol meant demand for printing inks for packaging was high. Also, there were lack of fibres to make cardboard packaging as recycling centres closed due to lockdown restrictions.
In the interim, the move towards working from-home for many businesses has resulted in a reliance on automation within the industry due to social distancing regulations. This need for automation has accelerated innovations being made available to packaging companies such as touchless technologies to aid production.
Retail has taken a huge hit while e-commerce has grown on a day-by-day basis. Demand for packaging that could provide both acceptable levels of safety, hygiene and protection grew overnight as online deliveries became one of few methods to obtain goods during lockdown.
The food industry also had a huge increase in demand due to lack of available retail outlets other than supermarkets and small shops. Demand for shrink bags, pre-packaged meals and snacks also increased as cafes and restaurants were forced to close their doors. This all goes to show what a vital role packaging played during lockdown.
These are the short-term implications and solutions, so what about the long-term effects for the packaging industry?
The packaging industry is working on the demands for hygienic packaging. Coronavirus can survive on packaging for up to 3 days, so the challenges are to produce materials that can be easily disinfected or are multi-layered allowing the consumer to remove the outer layer revealing a hygienic sub-layer underneath. This call for hygienic packaging has had an effect on the plastics debate. Perceptions and attitudes have changed as recyclable PET bottles which have an excellent carbon footprint have become an important foundation of the supply chain due to increased demand during the pandemic. However, it is important to state that hygiene and the environment are two areas that shouldn’t be played off against one another. They are both 2 important issues in their own right which can have a huge impact on the planet. However, coronavirus has had an impact on the pre-Covid19 trend of reusable packaging such a shopping bags and refill containers, due to the requirements of increased hygiene control within the retail sector.
Another long-term impact is the move towards local print production rather than outsourcing to other countries such as China. Details are yet to emerge, but having total reliance on overseas suppliers has become a talking point with packaging companies around the world.
This is a fast-moving crisis full of uncertainty, so it is difficult to predict what the future holds, but packaging has become increasingly important during the pandemic and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future.
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