The future of flexible packaging in India

Sustainability dominated the conversation at the 12th Speciality Films & Flexible Packaging Global Summit & Exhibition 2025, organized by ElitePlus++ Business Services. Across two days in Mumbai, brand owners, material suppliers and recyclers acknowledged that circularity now means balancing limitation and ambitions. 

Supported by the Department of Chemicals & Petrochemicals, Government of India, the 2025 edition attracted more than 2,200 delegates from 26 countries and over 800 organizations, spanning the entire packaging value chain.   

Speakers emphasized India’s rapid emergence as one of the world’s largest flexible packaging markets. With packaging now recognized as a strategic growth sector aligned with the Government’s Make in India vision, the need for technology upgrades, advanced materials and scalable recycling solutions is becoming increasingly urgent. 

Policies promoting Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), recycled content and advanced recycling technologies were cited as critical drivers accelerating India’s transition toward a circular economy. 

One of the defining features of the summit was the convergence of rigid and flexible packaging sectors. As brand owners increasingly adopt multi-format packaging strategies, speakers noted that rigid and flexible packaging are no longer viewed as competing alternatives but as complementary tools that serve different functional and sustainability needs.  

The summit hosted an extensive line-up of global and Indian industry leaders from leading brands including Godrej Industries, Reliance Consumer Products, Marico, PepsiCo Bisleri, Mckinsy and the Alliance to End Plastic Waste among others. 

Across 10 business sessions and seven panel discussions, more than 85 industry leaders explored key trends shaping the sector. Topics ranged from AI-driven digital transformation and smart manufacturing to next-generation materials such as mono-material structures, coatings, adhesives and advanced barrier technologies. 

Discussions also highlighted disruptive developments in chemical recycling, rPET, automation, traceability and decarbonization, with attendees receiving exclusive previews of emerging technologies across FMCG, pharma, healthcare, e-commerce, EV and solar applications. 

Redesigning flexible packaging 

Robert Cotton, R&D director - packaging sustainable materials, at PepsiCo outlined the brand’s strategy to transition flexible packaging toward recyclable, paper-based and biodegradable packaging without compromising food protection or performance. 

Snack packaging relies on highly optimized multilayer polyolefin structures for barrier, sealing and machinability. This complexity makes sustainability a challenge. PepsiCo’s approach centers on four material pathways including reduce, recycle, reinvent (paper) and reinvent (biodegradable films), all aimed at reducing dependence on fossil-based virgin plastics. 

Flexible film recycling remains central to the company’s roadmap, with investments in mechanical and advanced recycling to enable food-grade PCR. Cotton stressed that true circularity requires coordinated progress across film design, collection, sorting, recycling technologies and sustainable resin development. 

While paper-based flexible packaging is a key focus, Cotton acknowledged challenges around recyclability claims, machinability, sealing and barrier performance. The brand’s one of the promising materials combines paper with an ultra-thin high-barrier plastic film using three to five times less plastic than conventional metallized structures while maintaining performance and recyclability. Progress on home-compostable, PHA-based multi-layer films was also shared, with the company positioning biodegradables as complementary to recycling across multiple end-of-life scenarios. 

What consumers value 

Mark Carl-Henrik Conrad, associate partner, McKinsey & Company shared insights from McKinsey’s Packaging Survey 2025, revealing a shift in consumer sentiment. While concern for environmental impact rose between 2020 and 2023, it has since stagnated or declined and now ranks among the least influential purchasing factors across regions. 

Instead, recyclability, reusability and recycled content, have emerged as the most important sustainability characteristics, driving preference for materials such as glass and paper. At the same time, price and perceived quality have strengthened their position as the top purchase drivers, while willingness to pay a premium for sustainable packaging declined between 2020 and 2023, likely influenced by post-pandemic pressures. It has since remained similar, reflecting consumers’ inherently modest willingness to pay and the continued backdrop of economic uncertainty into 2025. While price and perceived quality have gained importance, the relative importance of appearance has declined over the survey period, likely attributable to the rise in online shopping.  

Multi-layer packaging recycling  

Unmesh Nayak, president - polymer chain at Indian multinational conglomerate Reliance Industries, shared an overview of India’s Plastic Waste Management (PWM) Rules, tracing their evolution from 2011 to the latest 2024 amendments and the forthcoming 2025 draft focused on food-contact packaging. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) targets have steadily increased, placing growing pressure on brand owners and converters particularly for flexible and multi-material plastics.  

Against this backdrop, chemical recycling was positioned as a complement to mechanical recycling, rather than a replacement. While mechanical recycling remains the lowest-carbon option, its limitations, including material degradation, contamination, odor retention and incompatibility with multi-layer packaging, restrict its ability to deliver true circularity for flexible films.  

Advanced recycling technologies such as pyrolysis, gasification, depolymerization and solvent dissolution are capable of processing complex, contaminated and multi-layer plastic waste. These techniques convert the multi-layer plastic waste into feedstock or monomers capable of producing virgin-quality polymers, including food-contact grades.  

Nayak also spoke about commercially available circular polymers and bio-circular polymers, made from plastic waste and agricultural residues, which offer reduced carbon footprints and drop-in compatibility with existing applications.  

However, challenges remain, including feedstock variability, high energy use, capital intensity and limited tolerance for materials such as PVC and PET. Nayak concluded that scaling chemical recycling will depend on value-chain collaboration, policy alignment, technology investment and innovation. 

Other panel sessions at the event focused on raw material innovation, building the business case for sustainability, brand owners’ perspectives on today’s packaging landscape, flexible–rigid packaging synergies, circularity and emerging Indian brands reshaping packaging design.  

Nidhi Verma, founder and managing director, ElitePlus++ Business Services, said: ‘The 12th edition has been a landmark, uniting global leadership and India’s packaging value chain at a decisive moment. This summit reaffirmed India’s role as a global hub for sustainable packaging transformation.’