Paper Packaging is the Key to Unlocking New Opportunities in Asia
As consumers, brands, and regulators around the world have turned their focus on sustainability and packaging waste over the last decade, the Asian market has often been seen as an exception to this trend.
But looking at the way things have always been is not how businesses grow. Looking at the way things could be in future, and then making that future a reality is what successful businesses do. And there are many signs that show many Asian countries are changing their approach towards packaging waste. As ever, the companies that are first to react to these changes will be best placed for success – and that means paper packaging has a bright future.
A chicken-and-egg problem
Part of the scepticism around Asia is due to the nature of the Asian economy, with its diverse mix of developed, developing and rapidly industrialising economies resulting in a uniquely fragmented market. While China dominates the region as the largest packaging waste producer in the world, Asia is also home to several developing countries that are the most severely affected by the consequences of packaging waste leaking into the environment and rising emissions1.
What this means is that Asian consumers are increasingly aware of the issues that are taking place on their doorsteps. Studies show that Asian attitudes to sustainability broadly align with those of European consumers. In some cases, such as willingness to pay more for packaging they perceive as sustainable, they can be even more pronounced2.
However, there is a gap between these sentiments and the actions that would back them up3 – the ‘say-do’ gap. While this gap exists in most countries, it is particularly wide in many Asian countries. When it comes to sustainable packaging, consumers either do not have enough information from brands and regulators about the available options, or they do not trust it4.
Between relatively weak packaging regulations in the region and nonplussed consumers, packaging companies have been hesitant to provide what would be considered sustainable packaging options to the market. This translates into a limited demand for recycling infrastructure, and little incentive for the public or private sector to provide it. It is a chicken-and-egg problem – which comes first, the sustainable packaging or the infrastructure and education needed to support it?
The tide is starting to turn
There are signs that the sustainable stalemate may be ending. Governments across Asia have taken an increasingly hard line on the packaging waste that often ends up polluting their beaches and forests. In 2017, China sent shockwaves through the global waste stream by banning imports of many categories of plastic waste, a position that has since been followed by several other states in the ASEAN region5.
The ban was part of a broader policy focused on improving both the quality of recycled material and infrastructure within the country’s waste stream. After failing to meet its 2016-2020 waste, it has focused on improving its waste management infrastructure in order to meet a new target: to ensure 60% of urban household waste is reused or recycled by 20256.
Other governments in the region are pursuing their own policies to achieve similar goals. Japan’s long-standing Containers and Packaging Recycling Act legally enforces recycling rates, while South Korea has implemented its own extended producer responsibility (EPR) policy7, which places the financial burden of waste management onto packaging producers.
Meanwhile, India has passed a wide-reaching ban on many single-use plastic items, while Vietnam and the Philippines have proposed regulations on secondary and tertiary packaging8. And businesses are starting to get involved in these regions, too – a headline-grabbing innovation in Thailand saw a popular supermarket adopt banana leaves in place of single-use plastic to package several items of fresh produce9.
In short, while packaging regulations have traditionally been few and far between in Asia, this is now changing – and fast. Businesses can either adjust to adapt to this reality or risk being caught on their heels.
Future-proofing with paper
Regulators are doing their part. Consumers are expressing a willingness to do theirs. Now all that remains is for the packaging industry to provide the solutions that both are waiting for.
This is where paperisation comes in. Paper has many benefits as a packaging material. It is easy to recycle into higher-value material, and as such has much higher recovery rates than plastic. And, provided it is made with fibres from a sustainably managed forest, it is a renewable resource. Perhaps most importantly, consumers know this, and increasingly prefer it to other materials as a result10.
Paper does degrade as it is recycled, as paper fibres shorten with each cycle through the recycling loop – although recent studies have indicated this process does not happen as quickly as previously thought11. However, as it uses a renewable resource that is significantly easier to recycle than most plastics – and which benefits from a thriving end market – paper packaging is more efficient to deal with in regions with developing recycling infrastructure. As such, it is currently outside the scope of packaging legislation in Asia. If the region continues to follow the template already laid down by European regulators, this is unlikely to change in future.
This places paper as the front runner in the race to be the packaging material of the future in Asia. It also sets up an exciting few years of investment and innovation as the industry strives to scale up its paper packaging use. These innovations could offer benefits across the whole packaging industry and the wider economy. For example, new high-performance water-based barrier coatings could help create a new generation of easily recyclable packaging that does not compromise product shelf life. It could even be that these coatings have applications outside of packaging, further stimulating demand for paper-based innovations.
The possibilities of the paperisation trend are nearly endless. And the conditions are right for bold, forward-thinking brands to start capitalising on these possibilities, breaking new ground and stealing a march on their competition in the vast Asian market. Forget what you thought you knew about Asia – its future is paper.
About Parkside
Parkside is an innovative packaging solutions provider specialising in compostable, recyclable, paper-based and innovative plastic flexible packaging solutions for the food, personal & household care and tobacco sectors. Established for over 40 years, the company is a global supplier with manufacturing sites in both the UK & Asia and is headquartered in Normanton, West Yorkshire. For further information, please visit its website www.parksideflex.com and follow on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
- https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/fandd/issues/2021/09/asia-climate-emergency-role-of-fiscal-policy-IMF-dabla ↩︎
- https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/packaging-and-paper/our-insights/sustainability-in-packaging-consumer-views-in-emerging-asia ↩︎
- https://www.marketing-interactive.com/bain-compnay-say-do-apac-customer
↩︎ - https://www.bain.com/insights/unpacking-asia-pacific-consumers-new-love-affair-with-sustainability/
↩︎ - https://e360.yale.edu/features/piling-up-how-chinas-ban-on-importing-waste-has-stalled-global-recycling ↩︎
- https://www.circularonline.co.uk/news/china-targets-60-reuse-of-household-waste-by-2025/
↩︎ - http://www.kora.or.kr/eng/coreBusiness/eprPolicies.do ↩︎
- https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/packaging-and-paper/our-insights/sustainability-in-packaging-global-regulatory-development-across-30-countries ↩︎
- https://www.packaging-gateway.com/news/thai-plastic-banana-leaf-packaging/ ↩︎
- https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/packaging-and-paper/our-insights/sustainability-in-packaging-consumer-views-in-emerging-asia ↩︎
- https://clustercollaboration.eu/community-news/new-research-paper-fibre-can-be-recycled-25-times ↩︎
