Beyond the material: three packaging trends from London Packaging Week 2026

London Packaging Week (LPW) returned to Excel London this September, bringing together thousands of packaging professionals and a packed programme of talks, launches and discussions.

Looking through the ideas and conversations that came out of this year’s event, one thing stood out: the packaging brief is getting broader.

Material choice and immediate product protection still matter, of course. But increasingly, packaging decisions also need to account for what happens across the wider system – from manufacturing and transport to reuse, recovery and end of life.

Here are three themes from London Packaging Week 2026 that really caught our attention.

1. Designing for the system, not just the package

Circularity was one of the strongest themes to emerge from the event, but the conversation went beyond simply choosing recyclable or recycled materials.

Discussions around Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), recovery infrastructure and packaging design repeatedly came back to the same challenge: no single organisation controls what happens to packaging throughout its lifecycle.

At one LPW session, representatives from PackUK and UK Packaging PRO highlighted the need for producers, designers, waste-management businesses, local authorities and material recovery facilities to work together if EPR is to deliver meaningful change.

For packaging designers, that means thinking beyond the pack as an isolated object.

The material needs to perform its job. But designers also need to consider how efficiently it can be manufactured and transported, how different components work together, what happens after use and whether the available recovery system can deal with it effectively.

For Tri-Wall, this is also why access to different materials matters. Corrugated board, timber, plastic, foam and other materials each offer different performance characteristics. Good design is about selecting and combining them where appropriate to solve the wider packaging challenge, rather than treating one material as the answer to every problem.

Key takeaway: packaging performance increasingly depends on the system around it, not just the pack itself.

2. Making reuse work in the real world

Reuse was another recurring theme, and one that raises a deceptively simple question: what actually makes packaging reusable?

Strength and durability are clearly important. But a pack that can technically complete several journeys is only part of the jigsaw puzzle.

A genuinely effective returnable system also needs to account for what happens between those journeys. How will the packaging be handled and stored? Can damaged parts be repaired or replaced? Does it need to be cleaned? How efficiently can empty packs be returned? And at what point do the logistics or maintenance costs outweigh the benefits?

That broader design challenge is particularly relevant for industrial and transit packaging, where returnable solutions may move repeatedly between factories, suppliers, warehouses and customers.

“For reusable and returnable packaging, durability is only part of the equation. The real challenge is designing a system that works repeatedly in the real world, considering repair, component replacement, handling and logistics alongside the performance of the packaging itself.”

Will Doyle, Head of Sales, Tri-Wall UK

This is an important distinction because reuse should not simply mean creating a heavier, tougher version of a single-use pack.

The best solution needs to be designed around the number of journeys it is expected to complete, the environments it will encounter and the practicalities of keeping it in circulation.

Key takeaway: reusable packaging has to work as a system over time, not simply look reusable on day one.

3. Using data to make better packaging decisions

Perhaps one of the more interesting shifts at LPW was the way packaging data was discussed.

Regulation has undoubtedly increased the amount of information businesses need to understand about the packaging they place on the market. But data is increasingly useful for much more than compliance.

Ecosurety highlighted this after the event, with speaker Jon Brookes arguing that packaging data is no longer simply a reporting requirement but can be used to support better packaging and commercial decisions.

That becomes particularly valuable because packaging design always involves trade-offs.

Changing a material might reduce weight but affect performance. A reusable solution could reduce single-use packaging but introduce return logistics. Reducing material could improve efficiency, provided product protection is not compromised.

Having better information about material use, weight, performance, manufacturing, costs and end-of-life outcomes makes those decisions easier to assess before a design is locked in.

That fits naturally with an engineering-led approach to packaging. Rather than making changes based on assumptions, businesses can use evidence to understand where improvements will have the greatest impact.

Key takeaway: better packaging decisions depend on better information.

A broader brief for packaging

Taken together, these themes point to an industry that is being asked to solve increasingly interconnected problems.

Packaging still has to protect the product and perform reliably. But designers are also being asked to consider efficiency, regulation, sustainability, reuse, recovery and cost – often at the same time.

London Packaging Week’s own post-event coverage reflected that breadth, highlighting everything from EPR and circularity to new materials, interactive technologies and practical packaging innovation.

For Tri-Wall, that makes one principle increasingly important: start with the challenge, understand the wider system and then design the packaging around it.

Because the packaging of the future won’t just need to perform as an object. It will need to perform as part of a much bigger picture.