Technical articles
20.10.2025
The future of pharmaceutical packaging: between sustainability, high tech and global market pressure
The pharmaceutical industry is one of the most innovative and biggest-selling sectors in the world. In 2024, the European pharmaceutical market generated sales of around 280 billion US dollars. In Germany alone, sales in the first quarter of 2025 totalled around 16.6 billion euros, making the country the largest pharmaceutical market in Europe and the fourth largest in the world.
01.05.2024
No packaging, no way: product protection challenges
Packaging, especially when made of plastic, is often today the target of criticism, focusing on excessive volumes of waste, carbon emissions and resource consumption. In this process, their most important function is often forgotten: protecting products so that they reach the consumer unscathed. And packaging is crucial to ensuring this outcome.
12.12.2023
Building a circular economy in the packaging industry: progress and challenges in 2023
Once again this year, the subject of how to establish a circular economy has gained significant pace. This has been driven most notably by the European Commission’s plans set out at the end of 2022 for an EU packaging regulation, which will affect the entire economy and has been hotly debated as a result.
12.12.2023
Packaging production in 2023: conserving resources wherever possible
Raw materials are the starting point for the production process, which makes their availability immensely important for the packaging industry. But in 2023, the global economy continued to be in the grip of supply bottlenecks and material shortages.
29.11.2023
Digitalisation 2023: Everything is connected
Next to the mega-trend of sustainability, digitalisation also dominated the packaging industry this year. “Digital Technologies” consequently were one of the Hot Topics at this year’s interpack. Especially the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) creates whole new opportunities in all areas of the industry.
20.04.2023
Non-food: Countless forms, and how to package them
The term “non-food” covers a very wide field of the most diverse commodities. And each and every one of these commodities, whether screws, dishwasher tablets, flower bulbs, household detergents or cement mortar, needs its own specific packaging.
03.04.2023
Baked goods: Automated packaging for sensitive goods
Baked goods are popular, which lends them their enormous variety worldwide. Whether from the supermarket shelf or as frozen delivery – bread, bread rolls, croissants, pastries and cakes are sensitive foodstuffs that place high demands on production processes and packaging. Therefore, automation and digitalisation are also becoming increasingly important issues for the bakery industry.
16.03.2023
Industrial packaging: For safe travels around the globe
A large part of the goods that are produced globally is intended for export. All these goods often need to travel long distances and have to be safely packed for the journey. Therefore, the standards for industrial packaging for land, air and sea travel need to be high.
02.03.2023
Food: Packaging against waste
Food packaging today is so much more than just protecting the individual product. It is true that the most important function, from the moment of packaging throughout transport, storage and retail, is to ensure that the contents arrive in private households in one piece.
15.02.2023
The changing face of cosmetics packaging
Sustainability has been a megatrend for years also for cosmetics packaging. Manufacturers are more often using monomaterial that can be recycled, paper and renewable resources, often from waste products from agriculture and forestry, or from the food industry, for their packaging.
30.01.2023
Confectionery market: High turnovers and highly competitive
Most people enjoy a sweet tooth, but with the trend towards more sustainability, there is also an increase in demand for sweets with more eco-friendly packaging. This puts severe pressure on the confectionery industry to adopt packaging processes and materials which are gentle to natural resources. Many producers of packaging already are able to offer sustainable solutions.
03.01.2023
Packaging for beverages is growing more sustainable
PET or glass bottle, aluminium can, beverage carton or maybe even a paper bottle, single use or multiple use – there is a huge range of choices for packaging beverages. But which is the most sustainable? The focus has increasingly been placed on ecological aspects over the last few years in this sector.
12.12.2022
Pharmaceutical packaging: Safety is what counts
The demand for pharmaceutical products is increasing worldwide, with more and more medications being launched onto the market in ever shorter periods of time. Last year alone, turnover in the German pharmaceutical market – the largest in Europe and the fourth largest worldwide – was around 53.6 billion euros.
