As 2025 draws to a close, Ashwin Moorthy, head of design & innovation at DS Smith, tells Packaging Scotland about the key trends, challenges and opportunities to watch out for in 2026.
At DS Smith, our main priority is responding to customer challenges and the development of innovative and sustainable packaging solutions. This approach is integral to our circular business model, and we are helping customers move towards a low carbon and circular economy. We also have a target-led sustainability strategy and a company-wide purpose of ‘Redefining Packaging for a Changing World’ – in partnership with our customers, suppliers, and communities, we have made significant progress to date, and this includes plastic reduction and elimination.
Sustainability and the reduction of CO2 emissions is a shared concern for the industry, and as a business we are innovating resource efficient and recyclable solutions for customers across a wide range of sectors – from e-commerce and FMCG to food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, automotive, and industrials.
Legislation is helping to drive the shift towards the circular economy and at DS Smith, we support the UK’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) This is aimed at ensuring the reduction of environmental impacts around packaging and to promote recycling. The first round of invoices for EPR fees were issued to obligated producers in the UK in October 2025, and the fees are modulated and based on a packaging’s recyclability. The system is therefore helpful in encouraging the design of sustainable and recyclable packaging solutions.
We ensure that our customers understand the recyclability of each fibre-based packaging solution in a standard paper mill from the outset. We use our Recyclability Assessment Methodology (RAM) and Recyclability Evaluation Service (RES) to test and improve the recyclability of a packaging with a CEPI-aligned score and expert guidance. These tools enable us to give our customers a detailed assessment of their fibre-based packaging’s recyclability within the circular economy.
Our RES solutions are graded as green, amber, or red, and it is significant to note that over time, the higher charges applied to red packaging will increase substantially. Consequently, difficult to recycle packaging is anticipated to reach up to double the material base fee in 2028/9.
Our lab-based testing is operated from within our DS Smith Kemsley Paper Mill in the UK, and we continue to work with external businesses of all sizes to test and develop disruptive technologies and solutions across our international markets.
The Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) is anticipated to change how our customers, and their consumers, will approach the design, consumption, and disposal of packaging in the European Union. In the general marketplace PPWR will help to minimise packaging waste, boost high-quality recycling, and harmonise rules around labelling. In addition, it will look at un-used and ‘void’ space and underline mandatory procedures to make sure that products are recycled. This shift will shine a light on the value in material renewability, reduced carbon impact, and improved system efficiency.
We know that consumer lifestyles and expectations are key drivers and rapidly changing with a demand for sustainable options and convenience in line with recycling. Research also shows that consumers are increasingly vocal about their online shopping experiences and preference for products with sustainable packaging. Retailers are focused on the delivery experience to ensure that their products are protected during transit for safety and security.
There is a demand for sustainable e-commerce packaging that is right sized, robust and durable and with less materials utilisation. These packaging options include easy to open and resealable and tamperproof solutions such as DS Smith Tape Back. We use our patented testing system DISCS to ensure that products are fully protected in transit. Packaging needs to survive as many as fifty different touch points and our testing processes ensure that our solutions are equipped to meet the challenge.
Our unique, pioneering, and industry-first Circular Design Metrics (CDM) tools allow us to rate and compare the circularity of a packaging design across eight different indicators. The CDM provides a clear indication of packaging design sustainability performance and enables our customers to make informed packaging decisions whilst meeting environmental and legislative requirements.
We approach innovation with a four-step process, and this includes insight gathering where we collect market and customer insights, set priorities, review our customer’s entire supply chain cycle, and finally, define their success criteria. Pack development, where we use our PackRight Process and tools to iterate from ideation to design finalisation. This is a collaborative innovation hub designed to help businesses in various industries such as e-commerce and Fast-Moving-Consumer Goods (FMCG) to redesign their packaging for improved sustainability. It involves a series of workshops at our PackRight Centres where our customers can collaborate with designers and engineers to create efficient and appealing packaging designs.
The next step of our innovative process is validation, and this involves reviewing progress against success criteria, to confirm our next steps. Then finally there is implementation where we prepare for assignment orders, oversee the production and shipment of the packaging solutions, and review the anticipated outcomes with the customer.
We have a dedicated team of designers, innovators, and strategists, who create circular ready solutions. The teams have the specific intention of designing out waste and ensuring maximum recyclability and reusability, and this approach applies to all our customers across thirty-four markets.
In 2026 we will continue to innovate our packaging solutions for all sectors, and build on our successes of 2025, such as confectionery paper tubs, beverage secondary packaging, fruit & vegetable punnets, e-commerce packaging range, industrial packaging, and high quality print options.
